Tying Up Loose Ends
by Princess Yue
Summary: Katara and Jet are friends again, but will they stay just friends? As the two bond in Ba Sing Se, Katara finds herself falling for him again. What will happen when Katara finds out about an upcoming dance and there are two boys vying for her attention?
1. Catching Up

Okay, so I got bored of writing one shots, so I decided to write my first multi-chaptered story! Where this story takes place in relation to the show is kind of confusing. I would say during Lake Laogai because the gaang has reunited with Jet already. However, they do not have Appa and Jet was not attacked and/or killed (possibly) by Long Feng. So it doesn't exactly follow the story line, but that's why it's a fan fiction, right?

Anyways, this is NOT a Jetara fan fic. It is Kataang. Well, I guess it's kind of both. But believe me, Kataang always wins over Jetara. This story was inspired mainly by Aang's jealous comment during Lake Laogai. I thought that was so funny, I decided to make a story out of it.

Also, bear in mind that as Aang does not have Appa, he is still a bit touchy and sad and all that. I don't know how long this will be; it all depends on how many ideas I have for it and if anybody likes it or not. The next chapters should be a little more interesting. Enjoy and let me know how I can improve. Thanks!

**Disclaimer:** Sadly, I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

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It was another beautiful morning in Ba Sing Se. The sun was just starting to rise and cast weak rays of light throughout the city when Katara woke up peacefully. She climbed out of bed and stretched, feeling strangely happy. The young waterbender looked out the fairly large window and was startled to see how early it was.

_'Wow, why am I up so early? I always sleep in when I'm given the chance.'_

For some reason, Katara had the feeling that today was going to be special. Feeling cheerful, she brushed and braided her silky chestnut brown hair, her fingers working absently on the braid she had learned how to do so long ago.

Her mother had taught her how to braid her hair when she was about five years old. Katara would never forget how her first attempt had looked – one loop of hair was longer than the first by a wide margin and her "braid" looked more like a lopsided bundle of tangled hair than a braid.

She laughed as she pictured it. She had definitely improved since that first attempt, but she recalled how proud of herself she had been, parading around camp with her head held high. She had been so carefree and innocent back then, so full of joy and laughter… much like Aang was now.

Katara sighed, remembering the bliss of childhood, and wishing that she hadn't been forced to grow up so soon. But, with her mother gone, there was no more time for fun and games, no more time for laughter. The day that her mother died was the last day of her childhood; it marked the day that she was forced to grow up. The only problem was that she was still so young…

Maybe that was why she always wore her hair this way. True, it kept it out of her face and was really pretty, but it also reminded her of her mother and of her childhood. It was one of the few things, along with her necklace and her waterbending, that kept her close to her mother.

She tied the end of her braid off and walked over to her door. Opening it as quietly as possible, Katara slipped out and tiptoed past Toph's and the boys' rooms.

Katara doubted Aang was still asleep, for he normally woke up before her, but she knew that Sokka would be, and she didn't feel much like waking him up and dealing with his grumpiness all day long.

After entering the main room of the house, Katara looked around for something to eat. Her choice was either an apple or a papaya.

"Yuck, definitely not papaya," she stated disgustedly, scrunching up her nose. Following her visit in Aunt Wu's village, Katara vowed never to eat papaya again. She grabbed the apple and sat down at the low table to eat it.

She bit into it, savoring the sweet and somewhat sour juices that ran down the peeling after each bite. When she had eaten it down to the core, she stood up and threw it away, wondering what she should do next.

_'Wow, everyone else is still sleeping,'_ Katara mused. She expected this much from Sokka, and maybe even Toph, but she had been hoping that Aang would wake up while she ate to keep her company.

Since she had nothing better to do, she decided to go outside and retrieve the mail. When the waterbender slid open the door, however, she found herself face to face with –

"Jet?"

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Aang was sitting in his room watching the sunrise when he thought he heard someone sneak past his door.

_'It must be Katara,'_ he thought to himself, a blush rising to his cheeks just thinking about her.

He didn't get up to follow her, however, which is what he would do under most circumstances. The young Avatar loved to be around her, and usually jumped on any excuse to be close to her, especially alone, where he wasn't under the constant glare of Sokka. But he had always loved watching the sun rise since he was a little boy, and the sunrise was so beautiful this morning that he chose to stay in his room for a few more minutes. Besides, watching it made him feel quite peaceful and calm, and he was unwilling to break that spell so quickly when he had not felt this way in a long time.

Aang was filled with the prediction that today was going to be a good day.

_'Maybe even good enough for you to tell Katara you love her' _

Aang's heart skipped a beat. He had been trying to summon up the courage to tell her about his feelings all week, but he hadn't had much luck. The one time he had managed to gain her attention away from the others, he had only been able to spit out, "Katara, I…" before loosing his nerve and turning away from her, his cheeks burning, and muttering, "Never mind."

Still feeling embarrassed about this last pathetic attempt, Aang pressed his knuckles together in a familiar position as he began to meditate, clearing his mind of all thoughts (which, incidentally, were all Katara-related).

After about an hour or so of meditation, the airbender grew bored and decided to say good morning to Katara. He slipped out of his room and entered the living room, expecting to see her sitting at the table eating breakfast or something. What he did not expect was to see that the room was empty except for a note in Katara's handwriting lying on the table. Aang picked it up and read it.

_Aang, Sokka, and Toph,_

_Went to the market to get food. Be back soon. Love, Katara._

Aang felt slightly disappointed that she did not ask him to join her, but immediately perked up when he realized that she couldn't have left too long ago and that it wouldn't be that hard to find her if he was flying.

The Avatar ran back to him room, grabbed his glider, and was outside in an instant. He opened the glider, smiling happily. Katara was going to be surprised when she found out that he had set off looking for her…

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Katara had to admit she was a bit shocked to find Jet at the door to their house. Sure, they were friends again, but it was still a bit awkward between them. Some things were not easily forgotten…

"Hey Katara!" Jet called to her, bringing her back to her senses.

"Hm?" she asked him.

After she had nearly smashed right into him and gotten over the shock of him visiting her, she had politely invited him inside the house for breakfast, momentarily forgetting they were out of food. Once she remembered that the only food item remaining in the house was a lone papaya, she had admitted that she needed to go grocery shopping. He asked if he could come along. She tried to find to find an excuse or something so that she could reject his offer without hurting his feelings, but, upon finding no solution to her dilemma, she had grudgingly agreed. Besides, they _were_ friends, right? What harm could it do?

And so she left a note explaining where she had gone (though she conveniently left out who she was going with) and she and Jet set out together. Katara let him lead the way because he had told her that he knew the best place to shop. Along the way, they chatted happily, telling each other of the adventures they had recently gone through. When they reached the market and began shopping, they had a great time looking at the weird items for sale and laughing at each other's jokes.

Jet had just dragged her over to a flower stand; he seemed determined to find the perfect flower for her.

"Look at this beautiful flower I found!" Jet exclaimed. Katara glanced down at the flower he held in his big hands. It was beautiful. The petals were cerulean blue, the color of her eyes. They shape of the flower reminded her vaguely of a heart.

As if he knew what she was thinking, he tucked the flower behind her ear, saying, "It matches your eyes. A beautiful flower for a beautiful girl."

When his hand brushed casually against her cheek, she couldn't prevent the blush from heating up her face.

_'Oh no, please don't tell me I'm falling for him again,'_ she groaned._ 'I just want to be friends. Can't he see that?'_

Well, after the comment he had just made, apparently not. And, judging by the way she subconsciously looked at his handsome figure, it was quite obvious that she couldn't either.

"C'mon, let's go!" Jet grabbed her hand and dragged her through the throngs of early morning shoppers crowding the market.

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After flying around aimlessly for several minutes, Aang decided that he had no idea where he was going. Ba Sing Se was enormous. He landed on the street and looked around for someone who could possibly help him.

"Excuse me," Aang called, hurrying up to a balding old man and his wife who appeared to be out for a morning stroll.

"You haven't seen a girl wearing blue robes with long, brown, braided hair pass through here, have you?" Aang tried to describe Katara to the best of his ability without embarrassing himself. He could have gone into much greater detail, but, to avoid declaring his love for Katara in front of two complete strangers, he left most of the details out. He still looked a little flustered, though.

The old man gave him a funny look before his wife answered him.

"Why, yes, we have, as a matter of fact. A young girl fitting your description passed by here not too long ago, accompanied by a tall, handsome young man. It looks like they were headed to the market," she informed him cheerfully.

At the words 'accompanied by a tall, handsome young man', Aang's eyes narrowed suspiciously and his heart sank disappointedly. "Oh," he said, trying to keep the disappointment out of his voice. "Where is this market?"

The old woman pointed him in the right direction and he bowed politely, thanking her. As he flew off, he heard her husband say indignantly,

"What do you mean, 'handsome'?"

The moment the marketplace came into sight, Aang flew low and landed stealthily on a rooftop with a clear view of everything going on in the market. Crouching in the shadows, he glanced around for any sign of Katara. Something glinted in the weak morning sun and his gray eyes immediately flew to the source, recognizing it a few seconds later to be Katara's beloved necklace.

Aang smiled as he looked at her beautiful figure. A blue flower that matched her eyes perfectly was resting behind her left ear. Frowning slightly, Aang's eyes widened as they skimmed down her arm to her hand, which was being held on to tightly by none other than Jet.

Aang gasped and nearly fell off the roof with shock. Balancing himself once again, Aang's wide gray eyes watched helplessly as Jet dragged Katara, his Katara, from stall to stall, showing her what each had to offer. Katara was laughing, a wide smile gracing her exquisite features, and seemed to be having the time of her life. She appeared to be completely okay with the fact that Jet was holding her hand. And, judging by the petal pink blush that adorned her precious cheeks, she was enjoying it.

Aang was crushed. What was she doing shopping with him and holding his hand? He was her best friend – that's something they usually did together, minus the holding hand part, which hinted at something more than friendship. He was stunned. Yeah, they were friends with Jet again, but still! Sneaking out in the morning and holding her hand was a bit more than friendship.

Maybe he was overreacting. Katara was seriously wounded after what he did to her the last time they met. Aang doubted she would fall for him again. She was probably just too polite to take her hand away from his.

He told himself this and made himself believe it, but it didn't make him feel even the tiniest bit better. It still wasn't right. If Jet was the one who was holding Katara's hand, it most likely meant that Jet had a crush on Katara, making him Aang's competition. And Aang still hadn't forgotten that she had once fallen for him very badly….

Without another glance at the two, Aang opened up his glider and took off.

When he slid the door to their temporary home in Ba Sing Se open a little while later (he had flown around Ba Sing Se in an attempt to calm himself down after what he had seen), he found Sokka sitting at the table expectantly.

"Finally!" he grumbled. "I'm starving. Please tell me you didn't forget the – whoa, what's up with you?" Sokka stopped mid rant to take in Aang's deflated appearance.

Aang didn't respond – by the time Sokka had finished speaking, he was already back in his room.

"What's up with Twinkletoes?" Aang heard Toph ask Sokka.

The young Avatar dropped his staff and plopped onto his bed, groaning. When they had first met Jet, Aang had been completely unaware of Katara's crush on Jet – just as unaware as Katara was to his own feelings, he reminded himself dully. Being his usual, optimistic self, Aang had been quite happy to be Jet's friend. It helped not only that Aang had no idea of anything going on between Katara and Jet, but that his feelings hadn't been so strong for Katara at that point. Yeah, he had a major crush on her, but he didn't… love her. Yet.

But now, Aang having wizened up, it was going to be a lot harder to be friends with Jet and act normal around him, a lot harder to keep his jealousy down.

Looking up from his pillow, Aang glanced idly around his room, vaguely remembering that he had woken up so happy earlier that morning.

A door opened somewhere in the house and Aang heard Sokka mutter,

"It's about time you returned! I hope you brought something good for all the time it took you."

"Sorry," came Katara's cheerful voice, and Aang felt his heart melt.

He decided he would pretend nothing had happened; after all, he was spying, and he didn't think Katara would appreciate that too much. He slipped out of his room just as he heard Katara say,

"Where's Aang?"

"Right here," Aang announced with a large, fake grin on his face. Sokka shot him a weird look, saying 'Well, now Katara's back you're Mr. Sunshine again'.

Katara smiled warmly at him. She seemed strangely happy about something. "Great, I got you some new fruits to try out." She pushed some fruit into his hands.

"Thanks, Katara." He gave her his best, toothy smile, and Katara couldn't help noticing it was a bit forced. She frowned.

"Aang, is everything okay?" Katara observed her friend closely. He refused to make eye contact with her, but she could still tell that his eyes were not as bright as they usually were. Something was surely bothering him; she always could see right through those fake smiles he sometimes wore. He could throw on a huge grin and a cheerful voice, but his eyes always gave him away. Aang may be able to fool the others, but he most certainly couldn't fool her.

"Wha-? Oh, everything's great, Katara," he said quickly – a little too quickly, apparently, because now everybody had their eyes on him. "Just a little hungry," he supplied, shrugging his shoulders.

"Okay, if you say so," Katara relented, not believing one word of it. But whatever was bothering him was his business. If he didn't want her to know what was wrong, then he didn't have to tell her. It just struck her as a bit odd because Aang was never one to be secretive about anything. At least, that she knew of.

"Can we please eat now?" Sokka demanded, rudely interrupting her thoughts.

The four friends sat around the table and ate, none of them speaking. After a while of sitting in an awkward silence, Katara spoke up.

"Um…. I was wondering if you guys would care to accompany Jet and I to lunch and shopping later on."

Sokka choked. Toph took this as her cue to slap him hard on the back, only causing him to choke even harder. "Jet! Where did you see him today?"

"Well… we kinda went to the market this morning together. He showed up early this morning, and, since we had nothing to eat, he offered to take me shopping. I came back to give you guys the food, but he asked if I would like to go out later. You guys are welcome to come, of course."

"Wait, back up. You mean like on a date?" Sokka asked incredulously.

"No!" Katara practically shouted, blushing furiously.

"I see. That would explain why you are blushing. Listen, Katara, just be careful. Remember what happened last time. I know we're friends with Jet, but I don't entirely trust him." Sokka had suddenly turned serious. Toph looked confused.

"What's wrong with him?" Nobody answered her.

"Well, does anyone want to come? Sokka?" Sokka shook his head. Well, it's not like she hadn't been expecting that. "Toph?" Katara inquired, getting somewhat desperate.

"Actually, I think I'll stay here with Sokka. Sorry Katara."

"Aang?" she whispered pleadingly. She really did not want to be alone with Jet again… or did she? Deep down, a part of her wanted Aang to decline so she could be alone with him. Katara quickly covered this part of her up. What, was she crazy? She didn't like him like that anymore… right? They were just friends, right?

While she spoke, Aang sat there quietly. Part of him wanted to go so he could be with Katara and (the jealous part of him) so he could ruin their little date, but another part of him just wanted to run back to his room and cry. Because that's what he really felt like doing. This day just kept going from bad to worse. It really seemed as though she had a crush on him again.

Aang noticed the look in her eyes when she said his name, the dazed, hopeful look that he often mirrored in his own gray eyes when _he_ was looking at her. And there was the way her cheeks grew bright red when Sokka asked her if Jet asked her on a date. It certainly seemed like a date to him. Jet had asked Katara to go to lunch – not the others. Katara is the one who had asked them to accompany her.

His eyes stinging with the tears he was trying so hard to keep in, he made up his mind.

"I, uh, I have to go," he managed to spit out before standing up abruptly and running back to his room, trying to hide the fact that tears were now flowing freely down his face.

Only once he was back in the solitude of his own room did he let his emotions out and allow himself to cry into his pillow. He wasn't even that sure why he was crying. Katara had done nothing to hurt him – nothing on purpose, that is.

Aang knew that he loved her. He loved her so much; he needed her. The attachment he felt to her was so unexplainably strong. What would he do without her?

He was already going through a hard time, with Appa being captured and all. Now this had to happen. It seemed like he was losing everything lately – first Appa, and now Katara. What did he have left?

More tears streamed down his pale cheeks. He tried so hard to get her attention and to impress her, but she never seemed to see him as more than a great friend. She loved him, but not the way he loved her. She loved him like she loved Sokka; like family. But that wasn't how he wanted to be loved by her.

At that moment, Momo flew in from the window Aang had left open.

"Hey buddy," Aang said softly, wiping his eyes with his sleeves. He reached out to scratch behind the lemur's large, furry ears.

"I don't know, Momo. I try so hard, but she only seems to see me as a friend." Aang sighed. Why did he love her the way he did? Before, it had always made him feel happy. Now it just made him realize that he was stupid to love her that way because she could never like a young boy with arrow tattoos all over his body. Not while she was so stunningly gorgeous. She deserved better than him. She deserved Jet. He was handsome, had long hair, and was tall.

Aang hated the fact that he was shorter than Katara. Sure, he had grown a lot since he met her, but he was still a few inches shorter than her. No, Katara would never like him.

And he had woken up so peacefully…

Aang remembered that he had planned only hours ago on telling Katara he loved her.

He silently laughed at himself, unable to believe that he had almost risked their friendship like that. It would have made things so uncomfortable between them if Katara knew that he loved her and she didn't love him back. She would probably be afraid to be around him because she wouldn't know what he was thinking about her and distance herself from him, resulting in the end of their friendship.

Aang couldn't live without her. Even if they only ever stayed friends, he would be okay with that because it meant that they could still be together. If telling her how he felt, thus relieving himself of his secret, came with the risk of never seeing each other again, than it wasn't worth it. Besides, after what he had seen today, it was obvious that she didn't love him the way he loved her, and he was stupid for not seeing that sooner.


	2. Too Close For Comfort, Yet So Far Away

Okay, for those interested, chapter two is finally up! It's taken a while, but I've been busy with school and midterms - which ended today! I'll try to have chapter three up sooner, but I can't promise anything. 

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. As always.

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Katara spent the next couple of hours practicing waterbending under the increasingly hot heat radiating off the sun by a modest stream reasonably close to their house. On most occasions, Aang would have eagerly accompanied her, but today that did not appear to be the case. Now that she thought about it, she hadn't caught a glimpse of him since breakfast. The instant she had risen to pursue him (much to her surprise) she had been halted by Toph.

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_Katara sat transfixed as Aang sprinted away, completely and utterly baffled. Rising quickly to her feet, she made to follow him, but realized that her feet were glued to the ground. _

_She whipped around to face Toph. "Toph!" Katara scolded the earthbender harshly. "What are you doing? Let me go!"_

"_No," she replied simply. "You can't help him with everything, you know. He needs to work out some things by himself."_

_Katara watched, becoming increasingly bewildered with every passing second, as Toph got up from the table and strode away, presumably to her bedroom, freeing Katara's legs in the process. _

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Katara had been so shocked at her act of either stubbornness or wisdom that she resigned herself to stay away from Aang's room for the rest of the morning and left the house to practice waterbending.

It tore terribly at her heart to leave him alone and not comfort him, but she reasoned that Toph might be right. Besides, she had no idea who or what had upset Aang in the first place. What if it was her? That would surely only complicate matters.

But wait, she couldn't be the cause. She hadn't done anything that she was conscience of. Even as she told herself this her stomach twisted up into a knot in a guilty manner. If she didn't do anything, why was this strange, guilty sensation rippling throughout her body?

She inhaled deeply through her nose, taking in the melodic, calming scent of blossoming lotus. Her affectionate azure eyes closed contentedly, Katara pinched her fingers together in a graceful, fluid motion, dragging a long, thin stream of icy water from the flowing creek and brought her hands up in a refined arc above her head, feeling the intense heat of the roaring sun waft over her, tanning her skin as she worked fluently. She allowed the stream to sprinkle a few drops of water onto her forehead and immensely enjoyed the cooling sensation she experienced as a bead of water slithered down her nose and across her cheek, eventually dripping down into her neck. It was so relaxing, so soothing…

Struck by a sudden idea, she stripped down to her undergarments, unbraided her silky hair, and slipped into the shallow creek, sighing as the spiraling water cooled her burning neck and shoulders. Absently she began to bend the water once more, focusing all her attention and chi on the element as she performed a simple move that depended on the fluidity and grace of the motions. She twisted her body elegantly, feeling the silkiness of the water and the placid push and pull. Vision became redundant; she supported and guided the water and the water supported and guided her as she performed an eternal dance, seemingly without a care in the world.

The pretty waterbender worked up through the levels, eventually rehearsing some of the most complex moves she knew; the ones that she had yet to master. Finally, exhausted and soaking wet, Katara dropped her hands to her sides and the dance ended.

She waded out of the creek and snatched up her abandoned clothes from the ground, intending to dry off and prepare for her "date", as Sokka called it, with Jet. Too tired to waterbend the water from her hair, she flipped it back to prevent her clothes from getting wet and wrinkling and heard it make contact with something.

"Ow!"

Whirling around defensively, Katara found herself literally face to face with Aang, who was rubbing a red mark on his cheek.

"Aang! I'm so sorry, I didn't hear you!" Remorsefully, Katara reached over to his cheek and rubbed the sore spot where her hair had whipped him, all the while wondering how long he had been there. She felt his cheek burn under her touch and withdrew her hand awkwardly.

"That's okay, Katara. Actually, I came here to apologize to you, not the other way around," he said, smiling sheepishly.

"Apologize?" she began uncomprehendingly, her forehead furrowed in concentration. Her brain must have still been in its own little dreamland, because there was no way it was working at normal speed. Then something clicked into place. "Oh! Why would you need to apologize to me, though?"

Aang rubbed the back of his neck bashfully, ashamed of his behavior earlier that day. "Well…" He dropped his gaze to his feet and dug a hole in the dirt with the toe of his boot.

"I just thought that you might've thought I was mad at you. And I wasn't, of course," he added quickly, chancing a look at her and seeing her shocked and hurt expression. After all, she hadn't done anything to intentionally hurt him. And it's not like she knew anyways.

As Katara continued to look bemused, the monk hastened to explain himself. "I mean, it's your choice… not my place…"

Katara managed to catch a few peculiar phrases from Aang's rambling, and although it did absolutely nothing to clear the situation up, she kept listening and waited patiently for him to spit out whatever it was that was bothering him.

"…and so I'm sorry I got so jealous. Friends?"

Katara smiled, still in the dark about what he was apologizing about and growing faintly concerned for him, and opened her arms wide, offering him a hug while saying, "We never stopped being friends."

The Avatar gave her a genuine smile and accepted the proffered hug gratefully, sighing contentedly at the closeness of their bodies as he experienced the solace of being around her. Katara, however, was not at peace, for she had just realized that she had no idea how long Aang had been waiting for her, and she had been _dancing _– or, at least, something of the sort – but the fact was that it had been a pretty personal moment, and…

'_Maybe he didn't see me,'_ she thought hopefully. _'He could have just arrived. Why would he wait without saying anything anyways?'_

"Aang, how long were you waiting for me?" she asked, unsure whether she wanted to know the answer.

Aang's eyes bugged out. "Uh, not very long," he lied unconvincingly, knowing immediately that she did not believe him. She always had an uncanny way of seeing right through him.

"Oh," was all she said. Silence fell between them, neither holding each other's gaze. Aang observed that Katara was still in her swimwear and was inspired by a sudden idea.

"Katara, let's practice waterbending together!" Aang enthused eagerly.

The waterbender hesitated. She was still fairly tired. "Actually, I kinda wanted to get ready for…" she trailed off uncertainly. The young boy's face fell disappointedly. Katara changed tack immediately.

"You know what, Aang, let's go."

Grinning happily, Aang yanked off his shirt and boots and literally jumped into the shallow water. Katara winced inwardly, praying that he didn't injure himself, and breathed a sigh of relief when he rose to the surface of the water unharmed.

"C'mon Katara, you're missing all the fun!" he complained loudly.

She dumped her clothes unceremoniously on the grass, resigned to the fact that getting wet again was unavoidable. But the pond wasn't that deep; she could most likely keep her upper body dry.

"Think fast!"

Without warning, a powerful wave crashed over her, drenching every inch of her body.

"Aang!" she cried reproachfully. "What was that for?"

"You were taking too long," he wined. Katara stared exasperatedly at him for a moment before creating the perfect plan to get back at him. Suppressing a smile, Katara waded into the water.

"Okay, Aang, take a stance," she instructed.

"Which one?"

"I don't care; you choose." She watched him closely, smiling widely when she saw the stance he took. It was an arduous move and the young boy had yet to master it, allowing her to create a distraction by correcting his stance.

She evaluated his hands critically; this was a precise move and had a lot to do with the hand motions.

"Almost," she said, gliding across the creek to stand in front of him. Grabbing his wrist with one of her hands, Katara moved it gently into the correct position and told him to tighten his fingers. If she had been paying any attention, she would have felt his pulse speed up rapidly beneath her fingers as he sucked in air, shaking ever so slightly, and she would have noticed the blush spread visibly over his soft cheeks, but she was preoccupied with the hand behind her back, which was forming a snakelike stream of water that was wrapping itself stealthily around Aang's ankle.

"Be sure to keep you fingers firm or you won't have complete control of the water," she told him, still holding on to his wrist. Had she been watching him more carefully, she may have realized that _she_ was the reason he was distracted, not his incorrect bending form.

Katara let go of his wrist, at the same time jerking the arm behind her back into the air, the tentacle yanking Aang down into the water. But instead of pulling him backwards so he would land on his back on the sandy floor as she had intended, she pulled him forward and right on top of her.

Aang's entire, partially naked body was on top of her and their faces were barely centimeters apart, their noses touching lightly. Startled and embarrassed that her plan had backfired so horribly, Katara gazed into his beautiful storm gray eyes and saw something flicker through them – something that should most definitely not be there.

The Avatar practically flung himself off her, blushing profusely and looking absolutely mortified.

"I am so sorry, Katara!" Aang apologized, hastening to explain his behavior. "I don't know what happened. Something tugged at my leg and I just sort of fell." He offered her his hand and pulled her out of the water, carefully avoiding making eye contact with her.

Rubbing her aching head, Katara said, "That's enough for today. Come on, let's go back to the house and check on Toph and Sokka."

Aang deflated at her words. "Okay," he agreed, disappointment etched clearly throughout his tone as he followed her out of the water and towards their house. He had really wanted to continue the lesson; he didn't care about the awkwardness so much as long as he could be with her and bask in her beauty and enjoy her presence – every second of it.

The sight that greeted the friends when they slid the door open was an odd one. Toph and Sokka were sitting across from each other, staring unblinkingly at one another.

"Sokka, Toph, what are you doing?" Katara questioned, biting her lip to prevent herself from bursting out into hysterical laughter at the intense looks of concentration on their faces.

Without removing his eyes from Toph's face, Sokka gritted through his teeth, "Staring-contest. Do-not-bother-me."

Now Katara really had an issue with holding in her laughter.

"How can you have a staring contest with someone who can't see?" she spluttered, either oblivious to Sokka's need for concentration or unwilling to respect his wishes.

"Katara!" Sokka yelled in frustration.

"You blinked!" Toph shouted over him victoriously. "Told you you couldn't beat me in a staring contest."

"What? No way! How would you know if I blinked?" he asked, outraged.

The blind earthbender blinked a few times before rolling her eyes. "Is that why you challenged me? Because you thought there was no possible way for me to win? Hello, I can still 'see' with earthbending, y'know. If I concentrate really hard I can even see minor physical reactions, like blinking."

Underneath her harsh tone and rough attitude, Katara sensed that Toph felt a little stung with Sokka thinking she was incapable of doing certain things. It made Katara regret what she had said only a moment before, for she too had underestimated Toph, something she had learned on day one that should never be done. Toph was living proof that you can do anything you set your mind too if you have the desire and will to achieve it.

"I'm off to my room if anyone needs me," Katara informed them, waving a hand goodbye.

"See you later, Katara," Aang mumbled wistfully, switching his focus from his two friends to Katara's retreating figure. Sokka and Toph did not give the tiniest inclination that they had heard her, due to being locked in another epic stare down. Not having anything better to do, Aang airbended himself onto the banister and lounged comfortably on the smooth, wooden railing, watching the scene before him, his eyes full of disdain.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

With less than an hour until Jet was due to arrive, Katara was frantic – what to do with her hair, her clothes, her – wait, why was she freaking out? Her and Jet were going out as _friends_. Not as anything more than that. It didn't even classify as a date anyways.

'_Right. And that explains why you're so panicky.'_

'_Well, I still want to look nice in front of my friends,'_ she argued reasonably.

'_Oh, I forgot. That's why you have this conversation with yourself every time you get ready to see Aang, Sokka, and Toph.'_

The young waterbender's struggled attempts to smooth the wrinkles out of her robes halted unexpectedly. It was true that when she was around them she didn't really care how she looked. Sokka was her brother – she didn't need to dress up for him. _'Like he'd notice anyway,'_ she added sardonically. Toph was blind, and therefore was incapable of appreciating how she looked. And that left Aang. Aang would undoubtedly notice – being the nice guy that he is – but what would be the purpose of dressing up for him? Their relationship was only one of strong friendship. Aang didn't like her that way and she didn't like him that way, right? So that rendered the entire process of dressing up pointless.

Hurriedly combing out the knots in her hair for the second time that day, Katara watched her reflection in the mirror resting upon her dresser. Something in her eyes made her know that she wasn't being truthful with herself. However, time was, regrettably, not on her side.

Still in a frenzy, Katara's sapphire blue eyes scanned the room frantically, hoping against hope to discover something that would enhance her appearance slightly (not that she needed anything) but wouldn't stand out too much and make her look like she tried too hard. She would never hear the end of it with Sokka and Toph around.

There had to be something around here. After all, she and Toph had found those kimonos and headdresses, right? Certainly there would be a little trinket she could wear.

Grabbing onto the handle of a drawer in her dresser, she heaved, and it was revealed to contain a vast amount of fancy jewelry. She rummaged around, tossing mismatched earrings and broken necklaces aside. The jewelry was gorgeous, mainly hues of gold, silver, and emerald green, but everything was so refined that it merited nothing less than a royal dinner party.

Sighing, she closed the drawer and glanced around the room again. A vivid speck of blue caught her eye. She walked over to her bed, instantly recognizing it as the flower Jet had given to her. She bent down and picked it up, twirling it between her fingers as she examined it idly. The petals were so delicate and silky. She wondered what type of flower it was; she had never seen anything like it before.

Absently, she straightened, turning to face the mirror once again. She carefully maneuvered the flower securely into her hair on the left side of her head and stood back to admire the effect.

She flashed a smile at the mirror. Perfect.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

Having lost yet another round of the staring contest and feeling a strong urge to do something he considered useful, Sokka sat hunched over in a corner and concentrated on sharpening his boomerang, which had become extremely dull. Every now and again he would shoot a furtive glare at Toph, who was lying on the floor on the opposite end of the room, resolutely ignoring him by bending a few rocks in a circle around Momo's head, who was swatting playfully at them. The warrior was being a sore loser, plain and simple, but it irritated him to no end that Toph seemed to beat him at everything – even at a staring contest. He knew he shouldn't care so much, but that didn't stop him.

Annoyed and frustrated, Sokka applied more pressure to the stone and struck the boomerang vigorously. This renewed energy and vehemence caused Aang to glance over at the older boy, a small crease in his forehead and a frown on his lips.

"Everything alright, Sokka?" he asked, a hint of concern in his voice.

Sokka merely grunted. Aang shrugged, not in the mood for problem solving, and turned his attention back to the door leading to the remainder of the house, his gaze unfocused.

The friends sat in silence for a moment before Aang's need for assistance got the better of him and he cleared his throat, signaling that he was about to speak.

"Sokka?" he started hesitantly, contemplating the best way to say this without giving away anything he didn't want the older boy to know. "I need some advice. How do you feel about-?"

His question was cut short by a scraping noise and he turned around to see Katara standing there, hands on her hips, looking completely unchanged except for the medium sized cerulean flower that was nestled in her dark hair. The Avatar felt an unwanted pang of jealousy when he recognized the flower as the one Jet had picked out for her. But the young monk didn't have much time to dwell on this because he found himself staring fixedly at her, utterly speechless.

She hadn't really done anything to enhance her beauty; she was always gorgeous in Aang's eyes anyways, but the flower just made her stand out a bit more. Besides, Aang had never really needed to find a big reason to gawk at her.

"Looks like someone got themselves all prettied up for a certain someone," Sokka commented mockingly, taking in her appearance. "Where'd you get the exotic flower?"

"Oh shut up, Sokka," Katara retorted, blushing a little nonetheless. Another pang of sadness and envy rippled through Aang's body knowing that he wasn't the lucky guy Katara was dressing up for. "What, is it a crime to wear flowers in your hair now?"

Sokka just smirked.

"And for your information, I got the flower at the market," she snapped peevishly.

Sokka opened his mouth to retaliate but before he could utter a single word, there was a loud knocking on the door.

"He's here!"

Katara literally flew across the room in her eagerness to open the door. There stood Jet, clad in his usual mismatched attire and looking totally handsome.

"Katara! Don't you look lovely," Jet greeted her smoothly.

"Um, thanks," Katara replied shyly. Jet looked around the room at the others, who were watching him intently.

"Aang. Sokka. Toph. Nice to see you guys." Jet acknowledged them in turn, looking from one to the other. Aang and Sokka nodded politely, though Aang was giving Jet a very hard look. He was trying not to be jealous, but he soon discovered that it was easier said than done.

"Hey," Toph said nonchalantly, still playing with Momo. Sokka's fierce blue eyes were on his sister, whose eyes in turn seemed to be glued on Jet. The water tribe warrior glanced briefly at Aang, who was also watching the pair of them with a glum face.

Jet broke the silence. "Ready to go, Katara?" Katara nodded and turned back to the others as she left.

"Bye, see you later!" she called over her shoulder, slamming the door shut.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm not staying locked up all day." Toph had risen to her feet and was stretching her arms and legs. "See ya." She slid open the front door and was about to leave when Sokka called out,

"Wait! Where are you going?"

"I dunno. Be back soon."

"Be careful!" Sokka shouted at her retreating back. She waved a hand lazily to show she had understood and walked off into the dazzling afternoon sunshine.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

Katara laughed uncontrollably, wiping tears out of her eyes as Jet told her about a trick he had played on his childhood friend once.

"And he never found out I had it the entire time!" he laughed, showing off his brilliant smile. Katara smiled at him adoringly. The more time she spent with him the more she came to realize how different he was. And after a while she noticed that she liked it.

The waterbender acknowledged the fact that being overly trusting could lead to her demise (she remembered all too clearly the last time she had fallen for Jet) but a tiny part of her really didn't care. Besides, his new personality made it difficult for her to believe that he would do anything to hurt her.

'_Hm. That sounds awfully familiar.'_

'_Okay,'_ Katara admitted, _'he still has that charm. But he's changed now. I can feel it.'_

However, no matter how many times she told herself this now, she couldn't help but feel like she was holding back a little. A part of her was still suspicious of him, constantly alert if he showed any signs of shadiness. He had fooled her once before, and he could do it again in a heartbeat. Katara pushed the thought from her mind, torn between the part of her that trusted Jet and the part of her that didn't trust him.

The sun was setting, bathing the vast, endless sky in its reddish orange glow, and the luminous moon began its ascent to its position in the heavens. In no time at all it would be nightfall and unwise to be wandering aimlessly along the shadowed streets of Ba Sing Se, and yet Katara discovered that she felt no desire to leave.

Jet's dark brown eyes followed her gaze and stared at the sunset for a moment before saying, "C'mon, I want to show you something."

He led her away from the crowd of shoppers and up to a large hill overlooking all of Ba Sing Se, where the sun's chromatic rays illuminated the area in a very romantic way.

Katara sighed softly, taking in the breathtaking view. She plopped down onto the fresh grass underneath the big, leafy tree that was on the hill, noticing as she did so that there was a pile of rocks set up so they resembled a seat. Jet followed suit. He moved one of his big hands over to hers and took hold of it, lacing his fingers with hers. The gesture sent a strange pang of guilt through Katara. At first she thought it was because she was making her brother and friends worry by not planning on returning home anytime soon, but as the odd feeling continued to course throughout her body, she had the sense that that wasn't the reason.

So Katara returned to watching the dull sun sink out of view and tried to live in the moment, her guilty conscience nagging her the entire time.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

_A stunning water tribe girl was perched precariously upon a strong, thick branch on a willow tree. Her eyelids were closed as she slumbered peacefully, relaxing easily against the sturdy trunk. Aang watched her, smiling as he watched her chest rise and fall steadily._

_All of a sudden the branch began to shrink, becoming flimsier by the second. And yet the girl continued to sleep, unaware of her pending doom. As the branch began to sag under her weight, Aang grew distressed._

"_Katara!" he shouted to her. "Katara, open your eyes!" But she did not stir._

_Panicking, the Avatar tried to run across the leafy forest floor to save her, only to discover that he could not move a muscle. He could only watch in blind horror at the fate that was about to fall upon the girl he loved._

"_Katara," he whimpered in desperation, struggling fiercely against his invisible bonds, hopelessly attempting to reach the girl he held so close to his heart. _

_Suddenly, the branch snapped and Katara woke with a jolt, panicking when she noticed her situation. Desperately, she tried to grab hold of the trunk to save herself, but it was too late, and the branch gave way completely. The forest floor beneath her disappeared, leaving nothing, not even the air, to break her fall as she fell, screaming, into a dark abyss. _

"_KATARA!" Aang cried after her._

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

Katara slipped inside as quietly as possible, not wanting to wake anyone. She was drained, exhausted from being up so late after waking up so early, and at the moment her only wish was to collapse onto her bed and fall asleep.

Of course, her bedroom had to be the farthest away, meaning that she was forced to tiptoe past everyone else's rooms and try not to disturb them. Stifling a yawn, Katara lit a candle and started down the hallway. She was almost to her room when she heard a whimpering noise coming from the door to her left.

Katara spun around instinctively, instantly recognizing it as the door to Aang's room. She hesitated for a fraction of a second before gently sliding the door open and rushing to Aang's side. He was fast asleep, and by the looks of it, he was having a nightmare. He had someone managed to tangle his body in his blanket as he thrashed around, shaking violently.

"Aang," Katara whispered, setting her candle down on his bedside table and feeling her heart break at the tortured look on the young Avatar's face. Gently, she reached her forefinger out and poked him, attempting to arouse him from his troubled sleep.

"Aang," she repeated, a bit more urgently. "Wake up, it's only a dream." In a slow and surreal state, the boy stirred, sweating and shaking. He sat up and lifted his downcast gray eyes up to meet Katara's.

"Katara," he mumbled, embarrassed that she had caught him having a nightmare, the time when he was weakest, the time when he showed his vulnerability to the world.

"Oh Aang," she whispered consolingly and Aang allowed himself to be enveloped in her comforting arms. He wrapped his own arms around her, ashamed of the situation but desperately needing the solid contact to reassure himself that she was right beside him unharmed. He burrowed his head into her neck, fighting back his tears as the images of Katara disappearing into a dark abyss played over and over again in his mind's eye and the sound of her helpless scream reverberated throughout his ears.

The Avatar drew her closer, clutching her as though his life depended on it, afraid she would slip away forever if he let go of her for the briefest second. Aang began to whimper in spite of himself, tears escaping his tightly clamped eyelids. He was trying to act strong, as though his nightmares didn't bother him in the slightest when in reality they tormented him for nights, but he knew from past experiences that running away from his feelings would only result in them catching him faster and hitting him harder.

Katara felt her own eyes burn as she listened to his piteous cries and as she felt the front of her robes grow damp from his tears.

"Aang, tell me about it," she said softly, rubbing his back soothingly, trying to calm him and cease his violent trembling. He shook his head vigorously into the crook of her neck.

Katara wasn't going to relent that easily though. "Aang, it'll only get worse if you keep it inside you."

"I don't wanna talk about it."

"Just tell me who or what it's about," she pleaded softly, pulling away a little from their embrace so she could see his face in the dim candlelight but still maintaining a firm hold on him.

He gazed at her, a dark shadow cast over his tear streaked cheeks, his eyes glazed over and unfocused.

"You," he finally whispered, his eyes shining brightly as a lone tear rolled silently down his cheek and dripped onto his neck.

Katara's startling blue eyes widened in shock and she embraced him fiercely once again, forfeiting speech when it was quite clear it was contact he needed, not words.

The pair sat there for a long time, each taking in the comfort and relief of being wrapped in each other's arms, not caring about anything going on around them. Aang relished the fact that even though he may not be the one Katara loves and marries, they will still have this amazing, unbreakable relationship and Katara will always be there for him, and he for her.

And as he sat there in her loving arms, he knew that all he needed was her, from now on and forever, and the two succumbed to their exhaustion and drifted off to sleep, still entwined in one another's embrace.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

Aw, how sweet. No matter how hard I try, I always have to have some fluffy or touching moments. Hope you liked it!


	3. The Invitation

Chapter three is finally up, for all my faithful readers. I know, it took a while, but I'm a busy person and am really picky with how I write. First I write the rough draft on paper, and every sentence has to be carefully thought out, and then I type it up and add more detail and change things, even those sentences I had spent so much time into thinking of because I will end up hating them. So yeah, I'm really weird when it comes to my own writing. I'm actually fairly pleased with this chapter, for a change. 

This would have been up a few hours ago, but I left halfway through proofreading to play DDR with my sister. For a while. But I felt I had to post it tonight, which is why I'm posting at about 11:00 PM.

I have to say thanks to all my readers and especially reviewers, I generally don't respond unless you have a question, but I might change that. So I'll say thanks now. Enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** I have not yet managed to claim Avatar for myself, so as of now I do not own it.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

_Thick, morose storm clouds hovered overhead, cackling ominously and threatening to pour down rain. Only one person remained outside despite the forthcoming danger._

_Katara sat cheerfully amongst a field of beautiful flowers of various colors, taking in the breathtaking sight as a content and peaceful feeling washed over her. She looked around observantly and her eyes came to rest on a rosy red flower a few feet away. She reached out and picked the flower, frowning when she discovered that it didn't smell as sweet as it looked. _

_Above her the sky darkened, and without warning a bolt of lightning shattered the storm gray sky and singed the flower in the waterbender's hand, missing her fingers by mere inches. Startled, Katara stumbled to her feet and ran, the flowers becoming unbearably annoying and cumbersome by slowing her progress greatly. _

_A shelter now within her range of vision, Katara increased her pace, desperate to reach it as soon as possible, the long stems of the flowers whipping her ankles and entangling themselves around her legs._

_Another bolt of lightning flashed through the sky and suddenly the ground beneath her feet vanished and she fell into a black oblivion, the air supporting her temporarily but not having enough strength to save her as she fell, screaming, into the darkness and vanished. _

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

Aang woke with a jolt, panting heavily, dimly aware that his room was bathed in a faint light coming from a candle held by no other than Katara. She set the candle down lightly, looking physically exhausted and emotionally distraught. Wordlessly, she crawled into his bed with him, opened her arms and hugged him tightly.

Aang hugged her back just as silently, now accustomed to the routine. Every night for the past three nights he had awoken from a nightmare, all of them involving Katara unknowingly falling into a dark abyss, to find Katara right there beside him. She would look at him dolefully before embracing him fiercely, and Aang, though ashamed and embarrassed that he was unable to deal with his nightmares alone, would always accept the hug gratefully.

The airbender hated the fact that he had kept her up for three consecutive nights – now four – but he couldn't do anything to prevent it. He couldn't help from crying out in his sleep and he couldn't stop Katara from coming in and consoling him.

"Aang, please tell me about your nightmare," Katara begged him, fatigue weighing down her words.

He groaned miserably. It was too painful; he was reluctant to think about it, let alone talk about it.

"You'll feel better if you tell me, you know," she persisted quietly.

He didn't say anything.

"Please Aang," she whispered despairingly, withdrawing from his body so she could see his face. Aang noticed she had deep bags under her eyes and immediately felt guilty, knowing that he was the source of all her distress lately.

"I can only help you if you let me in."

Katara gazed into his defeated eyes and only saw pain reflected in them. She could no longer see the sweet, fun-loving kid that was Aang; all his eyes gave away was unbearable pain.

The waterbender sighed, knowing that she wasn't going to get an answer out of Aang, and let go of him sadly and stood up.

"Fine. When you're ready to talk about it, come find me."

She turned and walked away, leaving Aang with his arms still outstretched, alone in his room once more.

He sighed and buried his face into his pillow, groaning. What was wrong with him? All Katara was trying to do was help and he was pushing her away. But he couldn't bring himself to tell her about his nightmares. He didn't know why he couldn't, but he suspected that it had something to do with the fact that the dreams all revolved around Katara, making them a bit more personal. If she realized that all his nightmares generally involved her, she may begin to wonder why he was constantly dreaming of her, leading to awkward questions that could accidentally cause him to reveal that he often had far less innocent dreams involving the two of them alone. And he most certainly did not care to explain those to her.

But in the process of indirectly preventing himself from informing Katara of his feelings for her, he was building an unwanted barrier between them. Aang's heart throbbed painfully knowing that he was hurting Katara by not letting her in. The last thing he ever wanted to do was cause Katara pain, whether it was physical or emotional.

Flipping himself over onto his back, he closed his eyes and cleared his mind, attempting to reclaim sleep, all the while brooding on how much he wanted to be wrapped in Katara's arms again so he would have an easier time drifting off to sleep.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

Katara hugged her blanket around her, curling her body into a fetal position as she tried to allow her exhaustion carry her off to sleep. She had not slept very well over the past couple of nights and it was starting to show. Deep bags shadowed her bloodshot eyes and she grew irritable easily, lashing out at anyone who even looked at her funny. It came as no surprise that Sokka and Toph were now giving her a wide berth and chose their words carefully when they were around her.

Katara despised being so grumpy but she couldn't help herself. Every night she had been up tending to Aang, whose nightmare problem only seemed to be worsening, and she grew more and more frustrated as he refused point blank to tell her about them, leading her to angst over it at night and lose sleep.

This was the one thing she did not understand about Aang. What could he possibly be dreaming about that was so frightening he wouldn't tell his best friend about it? Normally he was so open about his feelings, and Katara was stumped when she tried to figure out what could have caused such an abrupt change in personality.

Thoroughly drained, Katara flipped onto her stomach dejectedly, clamping her eyelids shut as she tried hopelessly to reclaim sleep, her mind still crammed with thoughts about Aang.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

Never had there been a day in his life when Sokka had been more completely and utterly shocked than that fateful day when he accidentally discovered Katara and Aang sleeping in each others arms.

It had been quite late in the morning when he had woken in an extremely good mood. He dressed in his normal water tribe garb and strutted happily out into the central room of their house, fully expecting to see all of his friends lazing around and chatting as they normally did. What he had not expected was to find the room barren except for a bored Toph reclining on a few pillows.

"Glad to see you've decided to wake up this morning, unlike Twinkletoes and Katara over there, who are both sleeping like rocks."

Sokka stared at her blankly. "Wha-? They're still sleeping? Well, not anymore. I feel that I have a right to get revenge for all the times THEY woke ME up."

He turned on his heel and marched back along the corridor.

Toph's eyes widened in surprise as she registered what Sokka was intending to do.

"Wait, Sokka, don't-"

But it was too late, for Sokka had already slid open the door to Aang's room and was staring fixedly at the sight before his eyes, mouth agape.

The water tribe warrior blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes with his fists, trying to process the horrifying scene displayed in front of him, part of him thinking that he was having a nightmare, still sound asleep in his bed.

Aang and Katara were fast asleep, snuggling in each other's arms. Aang's small, tattooed hands were holding Katara's waist tenderly, and what got Sokka the most was not the contact itself, but the blissful, content look adorning the Avatar's features that Sokka suspected came from the contact.

Sokka just stood there, drinking in the sight, momentarily speechless.

"I tried to tell you, you wouldn't like it," came Toph's voice from afar.

"What in the world are they doing… snuggling each other in the same bed?" he yelped to the blind earthbender, who had appeared behind him in the doorway, an amused expression on her face.

"Don't ask me. Like I would know," she replied indifferently.

Sokka strode over to the pair purposefully and shook them roughly awake. Slowly, Aang and Katara opened their eyes as if in a daze, blinking furiously in the blinding late morning sunlight.

"Sokka? What's wrong?" Aang asked him groggily, rubbing his tired eyes as he looked around blearily. A small smile stole across his face when he noticed Katara was so close to him. Under Sokka's watchful eye, this did not go unnoticed, and it did nothing to amend the situation.

Katara propped herself up on the pillows, giving her older brother a steely look as if daring him to make a comment about her sleeping arrangements.

"Well?" she prompted tauntingly, crossing her arms over her chest, her eyes flashing dangerously.

Sokka gestured wildly at them, no sound escaping his lips. Finally, he managed to splutter,

"What were you doing in Aang's bed?!"

Aang flushed, fully comprehending for the first time why Sokka was in such a state of disbelieving shock and fury. Never had Sokka walked in at a more inconvenient moment.

Katara swelled with rage. Seizing her brother's wrist in a deathlike grip, she hauled him out the door aggressively and out of sight, leaving Toph and Aang alone in the room.

Toph snickered. "So… what _were_ you guys doing?"

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

After Katara had dragged him halfway around the house and told him forcefully that she had fallen asleep comforting Aang from a nightmare, she had yelled that he should stop making completely incorrect assumptions based solely on something he saw before stalking off, ensuring that her long braid whipped him in the process, leaving the warrior feeling mildly ashamed of himself.

So Sokka resolved not to make crazy assumptions, though he ruined the effect somewhat by checking to make sure that Aang and Katara were in their respective rooms this morning. After safely confirming that they were alone and not sharing a bed, Sokka turned his attention to the fact that they were still asleep, marveling that he now woke up before them, a feat that had seldom been accomplished before. He guessed that Aang must have been up all night with another nightmare, marking the fourth consecutive night he had had one.

Sokka chose to let them sleep, not just because he was concerned about them, but also because he was sick of dealing with Katara's irritableness and increasingly petulant behavior. She certainly meant well, staying up and consoling Aang and all, but it was taking a dramatic effect on her well being.

"Hey," he greeted Toph, who was, as usual, awake and ready for the day.

"Mail came," she said lazily.

"Did you get it?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Didn't feel like it," she replied nonchalantly. "I felt someone outside bring it to the door and dump it in the box, but I decided to leave it for you to get."

"Gee, thanks," Sokka retorted wryly.

"No problem."

Sokka rolled his eyes, muttering inaudibly as he went outside and collected the assorted plethora of letters and newspapers about the going-ons in Ba Sing Se. Dumping the pile onto the table in a cumbersome manner, Sokka began rifling through the papers clumsily, tossing them aside the instant he decided they were useless.

"Junk, junk, oh please, listen to this: 'Royal male bear seeking female, preferably with…' Hey, what's this?" he asked curiously, lifting up a tightly rolled scroll with a golden ribbon tied around the middle.

"How should I know? Read it," Toph commanded.

Sokka obliged and unfurled the scroll.

"It's an invitation," he exclaimed out loud, eyes still scanning the piece of paper.

"To?"

"To a formal ball hosted by the Meesangs. Who are they?" he wondered, scratching his head pensively.

Sokka reread the words 'formal ball'. "Does that mean we have to bring dates?" he asked hopefully, instantly thinking of Suki, only to realize a few seconds later that there was no way he'd be able to bring Suki to the ball. His spirits sank drastically.

"Ugh, I seriously hope not," Toph grumbled disdainfully, inwardly hoping for the contrary. She knew exactly who she wanted to bring, but would she have the nerve to ask him?

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

Jet swung his foot aimlessly at a rock on the disorderly, broken up cobblestone road as he headed to the market for lunch. It was roughly noon time, and he was given an hour off work for lunch. His job was nothing too interesting; he was a waiter for a decent restaurant in the lower ring.

A gaggle of girls huddled nearby noticed him approaching and turned around to scan him up and down appreciatively. One of them – a tall one with curly, chocolate brown hair – whispered something to the others and they all burst out into giggles. A few batted their dark eyelashes flirtatiously, smiling enticingly.

Jet grinned politely, his dark eyes blank, not letting on that he had absolutely no interest in them. He had grown used to the girls' behavior towards him; it seemed as though every single girl in the Lower Ring of Ba Sing Se harbored a soft spot for him, but he merely shrugged it off, having eyes for only one special girl.

Unfortunately, the young ladies misinterpreted his smile, and, thinking he was interested, sauntered up to him immediately.

The same girl that had earlier whispered to her friends stepped forward bravely.

"Hi, I'm Jinai."

As she introduced herself, one of her friends pushed her gently from behind and she pretended to trip, throwing her arms gracefully around Jet's neck to steady herself. Leaning into his strong chest, she gazed deeply into his eyes, and with an exaggerated effort and a lot of pressing up against his body, she regained her balance and removed her arms from Jet's neck but remained close to him. Jet drew back, unnerved at how forward she was.

"Jet. Sorry ladies, but I'm running late for work."

And with that Jet shuffled off, his thoughts trailing back to Katara.

Katara. What wasn't Katara? She was drop dead gorgeous, kind and loving, a fantastic bender, and she was fiercely independent and strong. He didn't allow his deep infatuation with her show, though; he tried to act aloof and waited for her reaction to him.

Jet's dark brown eyes skimmed over the stalls as he passed them and an emerald glint captured his eye. He wandered over to the stall and saw that it was a long emerald shard attached to a string to wear as a necklace. It shone brilliantly in the sun, shimmering and sparkling beautifully as he fingered it lightly, examining it with interest.

"Is this real?" Jet shot to the owner, who was watching Jet distrustfully as though he was planning on stealing it.

"Darn right it is," he answered cautiously.

Jet glanced at it again. "How much?"

The man stiffened. "Thirty-five gold pieces, firm."

'_Thirty-five gold pieces?'_ Jet though incredulously. That was over a month's pay he earned from his job as a waiter. Was it worth it? Jet thought of the person and occasion it was for for a fleeting moment before making up his mind.

"Thirty-five gold pieces it is, then."

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

"Sokka, do you mind telling me why today's mail is strewn all over the floor?"

"Don't ask me; ask Toph," he replied distractedly.

Toph threw a jelly filled pastry at him angrily and smirked when she heard it make contact with a weird squishy sound.

"Hey!" Sokka protested.

Katara rolled her eyes disdainfully and stooped down to pick up the papers Sokka had haphazardly tossed aside earlier. Her cerulean blue eyes fell upon a fancy scroll with a gold ribbon hanging loosely off it. She reached out eagerly, snatched it off the floor, and began to read it, her eyes widening in pleasant surprise as they scanned down the paper.

Aang entered the room, yawning and stretching.

"Morning everyone," he greeted them cheerfully. "Katara, what's that?"

"It's an invitation!" she squealed excitedly. "We've been asked to attend a royal ball hosted by the Meesangs."

"Yeah, so we've heard," interjected Toph, sounding uninterested.

Aang perked up. "A ball? As in a dance? With… dates?" he asked, somewhat embarrassed by his own question.

Katara glanced at him quizzically.

"Yeah, I'd imagine so."

Aang stole a glance at her, a hopeful smile spreading across his young face, which was missed, as usual, by Katara.

Toph rolled her eyes and shook her head disdainfully, mumbling inaudibly. If it had been any more obvious why Aang had taken such a greater interest in this whole dance affair, it would have been stamped across his forehead for the whole world to read. But Katara, being Katara, always acted as though she didn't notice, which led Toph to believe that she actually didn't notice.

The waterbender shifted her gaze to Sokka, who wore a subdued expression.

"Sokka. Sokka!"

The warrior jerked out of his daze with a start.

"Huh?"

"What's wrong? You're never this quiet," Katara said to him, concern etched into her voice.

"You can say that again," Toph muttered from her cushion. Katara choked back a laugh.

Sokka chose to ignore the earthbender's jibe. "Nothing. It just that I had kinda wanted to bring Suki…" he trailed off sadly.

Toph's grin vanished and was replaced by a scowl.

"But Sokka, there's no way to reach her before the ball. It's only two weeks away! And besides, we don't even know where she is," Katara reasoned.

"I know that," Sokka snapped. Katara backed away a little, taken aback by his vehemence.

"Who said we were going anyway?" interrupted Toph, who was still scowling. "I hate these types of things; they require getting all _girly_." She shuddered.

"I think we should go," Aang piped up. "Who knows, maybe it will be fun."

"Fun for you," Toph grumbled under her breath.

"I'm with Aang. As long as we're in Ba Sing Se, we might as well participate in some of the activities going on," Katara insisted firmly.

Toph raised her eyebrows in amusement. "Well, now that that's settled, who are _you_ going with, Katara?"

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

As a result of several days of wandering aimlessly along the streets of the Upper Ring of the city, Aang had grown quite familiar with them and could comfortably walk among them while deep in his own thoughts without the fear of getting lost; a plus because lately he had been nothing but pensive as he summoned up enough courage to ask Katara to the ball before Jet did.

Jet. The very thought of him caused Aang's blood to boil. Sure, Jet was a nice enough guy (he had certainly captivated a certain waterbender), but Aang only saw him as competition. He recalled that there had been a time when he was not jealous of Jet, for he had been blissfully unaware of Katara's infatuation with him. But now he was fully aware of it, and fully aware of how naïve he had been. Sometimes he tried to push all those thoughts away and pretend that there was nothing going on between Katara and Jet, but it never worked; in the end he would just end up thinking about it even more.

Sick of his own thoughts, Aang sighed, shaking his head wearily. This new feeling was not setting well with the young Avatar. He struggled to recall a time when he was even the slightest bit jealous over anybody or anything and drew a blank. Aang highly disliked feeling resentment towards Jet for reasons he couldn't speak of and also disliked feeling second best to him. A part of him really just wanted to be friends with Jet again so he could breathe a sigh of relief and let all of these unwanted jealous thoughts go. However, as long as they were both competing to win over Katara's heart, he was quite incapable of doing so, especially since, much to Aang's dismay, Jet appeared to be coming out victorious.

A fierce determination to win Katara over suddenly gripped his heart. The only question was how was he to do it?

Immersed in his thoughts and unaware of his actions, the Avatar tripped over a large rock in his path that he had not noticed and stumbled forward, instinctively grabbing hold of a nearby pole in an attempt to steady himself. The potted flower that had been hanging precariously off it fell and shattered against the cobblestones with a sickening noise. Clumsily, Aang straightened himself, and, upon realizing what he had done, hastily dropped to his knees to scoop up the jagged clay shards of the pot he had just broken.

"What's with all the ruckus? Can't anyone tell I'm nappin'?"

"Oh dear. Calm down, honey, it was just a pot breaking."

An elderly woman with long, white hair and a kind face came bustling out carrying a broom and dustpan.

"I am so sorry. It was my fault entirely. Sometimes I can be so clumsy," Aang apologized sincerely, too preoccupied with helping clean up his mess to bother looking up at the woman.

"Don't worry about it, my dear, these things happen. Why just the other day-" the old lady froze as she finally met Aang's eyes and took in his appearance, narrowing her eyes as if struggling to remember something. There was something familiar about him.

"My boy, haven't we met?"

Aang nodded enthusiastically, also in a state of remembrance.

"Yeah, I asked you for directions a few days ago."

The woman gasped. "Oh, I remember! Such a polite young lad."

Her emerald green eyes ran over him once again, lingering on the blue arrow tattoos that marked his hands and head. A shocked expression was fixed upon her wrinkled face for a moment, but then she became impassive once more as she quickly hid the look behind a warm smile.

"You must join me for a cup of tea. Come along now, my treat."

She seized him firmly by the shoulders and steered him inside the shop before he had a chance to refuse.

"Wait right here," she instructed after she had settled him down in a comfortable chair situated behind a small, round tea table.

Drumming his fingers on the table in front of him, the Avatar gazed around surreptitiously, seeking an indication as to what the store sold. To his right there was a large window that jut outside of the standard box of the shop a bit to allow room for the small couch that was situated there. To his left were many shelves filled with an assortment of flowers and bottled fragrances. He was sitting in an area that greatly resembled a tea shop. The shop appeared to be a combination of a tea shop and a flower store; each shop had a half of the building.

Intrigued, an idea forming in his head, Aang got up and examined the jubilee of assorted flowers that surrounded him. Vaguely, he wondered what could have inspired such a weird combination for a store.

'_Maybe,'_ he thought, his heart racing rapidly, _'maybe I could find a flower for Katara.'_

The young monk was quite pleased with this line of thinking. He considered flowers to be very romantic; after all, look how well it worked for Jet.

"Find anything you like?"

Aang jumped about a foot in the air, releasing his hold on a perfume bottle he had been in the process of sniffing to determine whether or not it reminded him of Katara in the process. The bottle smashed at his feet and its contents flowed along the wooden panels of the floor, seeping through his boots and soaking his toes.

Once again, the Avatar could have smacked himself for his cumbersome behavior.

"Not again! Sorry, I don't know what's wrong with me lately. I'm such a klutz."

Quickly, Aang waterbended the remaining perfume, which smelled of lilies, into a new jar and handed the woman the bottle, ginning sheepishly.

Her face bore an incredulous look but her voice was warm nonetheless.

"Not to worry, not to worry." She returned the perfume to its rightful place on the shelf and gestured over to the table on her left where she had just placed a fresh pot of tea. "Come now, before the tea gets cold."

Aang resumed his seat, feeling immensely relieved that this woman was so benevolent. The old woman settled down comfortably and poured him a cup of steaming hot tea.

"May I ask your name?" she inquired, sipping her tea delicately. Following suit, Aang raised his cup to his lips and poured some of the burning liquid into his mouth. His eyes widened – he hadn't realized it was so hot – and he attempted to swallow, the tea scalding his throat.

"A-Aang," he choked, his eyes watering from the pain. He coughed a few times and replaced the tea cup back on the table, deciding to wait until it cooled before he attempted drinking it again.

"My, my, what a lovely name. I must ask, did you have any luck finding your friend the other day?"

As he reluctantly recalled the terrible memories of that day, Aang subconsciously curled the fingers of his left hand into a tight ball. He nodded curtly. The woman beamed.

"Splendid, splendid. I do love to be of assistance. That is one of the reasons my husband and I created this shop, about twenty years ago. I don't know if you noticed, but this shop is a combination of a tea shop and a flower shop. The tea shop area is where I hear all kinds of personal problems. You wouldn't believe the type of people we get in here, all with a different story. I love sorting out people's problems and what better way to do that than with a nice, calming cup of tea? That is why I created a tea portion in this shop."

"Why did you make the flower portion?" Aang questioned curiously.

"Oh, just because I love flowers," she replied casually, reaching over and sniffing a violet flower with large, elongated petals on the windowsill. Then her green eyes fell on Aang's clenched fist and she frowned. "Is something the matter, dear?"

"Huh?" Aang glanced down at his hands in surprise. The porcelain tea cup his hand was still resting on was being squeezed to death in a viselike grip. His other hand was cramped up into a ball. He loosened his muscles, and, upon unclenching his fist, observed that there were fairly deep red marks on his palms where his nails had sunk into the skin. Wincing slightly, he shook out his hand and forced a smile onto his face, feigning airiness in an attempt to deter her from his true feelings.

"Oh. No, everything's great!"

The old woman cocked an eyebrow at him disbelievingly. "Believe me, Aang, I've been in business long enough to know not to fall for that. Now spill."

The Avatar's grin faltered at her words. That big, goofy smile had always worked so well.

"Well…" he began hesitantly. Had he been forewarned that by taking a walk through the city he would wind up revealing secrets he was disinclined to expose to an overly friendly elderly woman in a flower and tea shop, thus placing him in quite the awkward position, he would never have left the house.

Taking a deep, shaky breath, he blurted out, "You see, there's this boy and this really pretty girl, and the boy kinda has more-than-friends feelings for her but doesn't tell her because he is afraid of rejection and the possibility of wrecking their friendship, which means everything to the boy. But this boy _really_ likes her, and there's this fancy couple's ball coming up and he wants to ask her to go with him but is having trouble mustering up the courage. And there's also this other guy who the girl seems to really like and the boy is afraid if he doesn't ask her soon enough, the other guy will snatch her away and the boy will lose her forever, all because he couldn't tell her how he feels. And he doesn't want that to happen," Aang finished lamely, dropping his gaze to his lap.

The woman contemplated his classic, intentionally lacking in detail story. "Hm. Well the first step is to-"

"I know, I know; to tell her how I feel," Aang interjected in an annoyed tone, restraining himself from sighing with difficulty. He had heard this all before.

Then his eyes nearly popped out of his head as he registered the words that had just rolled off his tongue and resisted the urge to slap his forehead at his own stupidity.

"I must say, that was much easier than I had expected," the old woman told him, her eyes twinkling.

Aang gaped at her. "You mean you already knew?"

She laughed heartily at his naïve innocence. "It's quite obvious; it's written all over your face." She smiled knowingly.

Aang frowned. Was he really _that_ obvious? If this lady he had just met could figure him out without Katara even around (and he was certainly worse around her) than he must be completely invisible to Katara. His heart sank miserably. What could he do to get her to notice him?  
"The girl you were looking for?"

"Huh?"

"This girl you like. Is she the friend you were looking for?"

"Oh, yeah," Aang mumbled, blushing lightly.

"Ah, I thought so. The look on your face when you described her made me wonder…"

The pink patches on Aang's cheeks deepened at her statement. He had thought he had done a fairly good job keeping his face impassive as he had described her, but apparently not.

The woman sat there, watching his discomfort placidly.

"And this other boy is the one who accompanied her that day? The handsome one?" she prompted when Aang gave her no response.

"Yeah," he muttered grudgingly, disliking paying Jet a complement. When did he become so jealous?

"I see," the old woman said carefully. "Well, you are right; you have to tell this girl how you feel about her, but not first. First, you should ask her to this ball; then you should tell her. I recommend telling her at the ball."

"I can't. I can't tell her," Aang said flatly.

"Yes, yes you can," the woman insisted firmly.

"But what if I can't ask her? What if she says no? What if she doesn't like me back? What if-"

"We should not concern or doubt ourselves with all the 'what ifs' in the world," she shushed him. "Life is about taking chances and about taking risks. Those 'what if' questions you asked could just as easily go the other way. What if she does harbor the same feelings for you? How would that make you feel?"

"Very happy," Aang admitted.

"Of course you would."

"But she's never really given any indication that she likes me as more than a friend."

"That does not matter. It is not uncommon for people to hide their true feelings. Now, I believe I am right in thinking that you and this girl have a strong relationship, no?"

"Yes," Aang replied.

"Well then, I think that she would be able to accept you no matter what you told her and how shocked she was. Even if she did not hold the same feelings for you, I am positive that she would not abandon you for something you cannot help feeling for her. So, the worst thing that could happen, really,-"

"Is for her to not like me that way," Aang finished.

The woman nodded. "Precisely."

"I don't know," Aang said uncertainly. "What about Jet?"

"What about him?"

"I think he likes Katara, and I'm pretty sure she likes him back. She had a major crush on him a while back."

"But you don't know for sure she has a crush on him now. Take the chance, Aang, and ask her to the ball. You'll never forgive yourself if you pass up this opportunity by not even trying."

Aang smiled graciously, full of hope once again.

"Thank you."

He bowed respectfully, stood up, and made towards the door.

"Wait," the elderly woman called to him. Aang turned around to face her.

"Remember, girls love flowers… and honesty."

She gave him a significant look before stuffing something into his left hand and shooing him away.

Only once he was back on the road did Aang glance down at the item in his hand. Grinning widely, the young monk sent a silent 'thank you' back to the woman in the shop and headed home.

From the door to her shop, the old lady watched the young boy bound happily down the street and out of sight. She thought back to a few minutes ago when the boy had been squirming uncomfortably in his chair, blushing like crazy and remembered what that was like, for she too had fallen in love, many years ago. She smiled serenely and shook her head.

"Young love."

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

First off, the last name 'Meesang' is Korean and pronounced '_maysong'. _And as for Jet's job... the waiter idea was entirely my sister's. I had originally said no because I couldn't really imagine Jet as a waiter, but I agreed in the end A) because I had no other options, and B) because it fit in well with a future chapter.

The old lady... I didn't give her a name. One, I suck at making names for characters, and two, I didn't feel like giving her one. I wasn't intending on bringing her back from chapter one, but I didn't want to create a whole new character so I thought I'd use her. She may come back, she may not, I haven't decided yet.

And one more note, this story is Tokka as well. I love Tokka, but I'm torn because I love Sokka/Suki and Sokka/Yue as well, but this fic is Tokka. Thanks for reading!


	4. Disappointments

Like I promised, chapter four is up during vacation! It would have been up sooner, but I've been busy working on chapter five, so... This chapter is really short compared to the other ones. It's mainly just a filler chapter - it was originally part of chapter three, but that chapter got too long so I made it into a whole chapter. I personally don't think it's a good chapter - chapter three was a lot better in my opinion, but that's okay I guess. 

Did you all see that School Time Shipping short? It was so adorable! I can't wait for the next two to come out! And now, on with the story!

**Disclaimer:** Nope, I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

"I don't want to hear what you've got to say anymore!" Toph exploded, her bright red face scrunched up abnormally in a fit of pure rage.

Sokka, whose face was equally hot and rage-filled, tried unavailingly to reason with her.

"Toph, all I said was-"

"I know what you said!" she shrieked, cutting across him furiously. Her black hair had begun falling out of its elegant bun and was now hanging around her shoulders at odd, uneven lengths. The long bangs that often covered a good portion of her face were plastered to her sweaty skin.

"But Toph, I didn't mean-"

"Yes you did!" screamed Toph, advancing on the Water Tribe warrior. "Don't lie to me, Sokka!"

Aang stood frozen in place, observing the heated argument before his eyes, stunned. He had entered the house only minutes ago to find Sokka and Toph engaged in a fiery dispute. He had no idea what they were even fighting over; all he knew was that when he walked inside, Toph was shouting about something Sokka had said to her, absolutely beside herself with rage, while Sokka attempted valiantly to calm her down.

The wooden door behind him slid open and Katara slipped inside, bubbling with euphoria and looking immensely pleased about something. Her delighted smile disappeared the moment she looked around the room to be replaced with a look of utter bafflement.

"What's going on?" she demanded, looking from Sokka to Toph and back again, taking in their angry appearances with confusion. Aang shrugged, bewildered. Toph rounded on Katara.

"Him!" she snarled, jabbing her finger at the warrior a few feet away from her. "It's all his fault! If he had just kept his fat mouth shut-"

"Hey, don't try and blame this all on me!" Sokka said angrily.

"Wait, slow down," Katara stopped them firmly. "What happened?"

Toph took a few deep breaths in a failed attempt to calm herself.

"Well, it all started after you two left," she began, breathing heavily through her nose. Aang gave Katara a curious glance. Where had she been? "Sokka was still moping around, so I thought I'd attempt to cheer him up. Since he _obviously_ wanted a date for the ball, I generously offered to accompany him as a friend. But no; he just kept going on about how much he wished _Suki_ was here, completely ignoring my offer. So, never mind! Have fun going by yourself!" And with that Toph stormed off, slamming the door harshly behind her.

Katara and Aang stared at Sokka, who was staring after Toph with his mouth open. He shook his head wearily and sighed.

"Well, I'm off to bed. Night."

And without another word, Sokka disappeared into his bedroom.

Aang turned to look incredulously at Katara, whose face bore an equally bemused expression.

"That was… unexpected." Aang grinned sheepishly.

Katara nodded slowly, reminding Aang of something he needed to do. He looked around. They were completely alone. It was now or never.

His heart pounding rapidly against his chest, Aang began to fidget nervously, wondering how to start.

"Um, Katara?" he stammered tentatively, unsure of how to phrase what he was about to ask her.

"Yes?"

"I wanted to ask you something," he mumbled, a familiar pink tinge rising to his cheeks. His averted his eyes, unable to hold Katara's gaze any longer. She didn't reply, so he took that as his cue to continue.

The young Avatar rubbed the back of his neck embarrassedly, his cheeks still burning. He took a deep breath, trying to sooth the uncomfortable writhing sensation he was feeling in his stomach.

"Katara, I was wondering if you would-"

"Aang, you'll never believe what happened today!" interjected Katara excitedly, clearly not listening to a word he was saying.

"What?" he asked, thoroughly put out. He had come so close to asking her to the ball, and by interrupting, she had made him lose his nerve.

"Jet asked me to the ball!" she announced exuberantly, restraining herself from jumping up and down with glee.

"What?!" Aang yelped. "What did you say?"  
"Yes, of course," she answered, giving him a funny look as though saying, 'What did you expect me to say?' "And look what he bought me!"

She held out an exquisite emerald shard that gleamed and sparkled beautifully.

Aang's heart sank, knowing he would never be able to afford anything like that.

Once again, Aang had been beaten by Jet. He looked up at Katara, absolutely crushed, and noticed that she was staring at him expectantly.

"That's… great, Katara," Aang said quietly. He hugged her.

"Thank you," she whispered, hugging him back. He felt a little limp in her arms. She pulled away as she remembered something.

"Oh yeah, what were you going to ask me?"

Something unreadable flashed through Aang's round gray eyes.

"Oh, that. It was nothing," he mumbled softly. He suddenly felt as though all his energy had been depleted and wished to go to bed.

"I'm going to bed… night, Katara."

The young monk hugged her one more time, trying to receive some comfort and happiness out of the embrace to fill the cold emptiness that was weighing down his heart, but got little.

Aang walked past her and headed toward his bedroom dejectedly, his head bowed, having only his relentless, ever-present nightmares to look forward to, the flower he had planned on proudly presenting to Katara lying forgotten on the cold, hard surface of the living room table.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

Katara crawled under her blankets contentedly, smelling sweetly of the perfumed soap she had picked up earlier that day. Her day had gone so well – she had been asked to the dance by Jet! The waterbender gazed fondly at the emerald pendant resting on her bedside table. Each day she passed in Jet's company eased the suspicion and distrustfulness she had originally felt for him when she first saw him in the city. It certainly seemed as though he was a changed person, and Katara really, really liked him.

However, whenever she was around him, she had this guilty feeling in the pit of her stomach for no apparent reason. It nagged her during every intimate moment the two shared and it annoyed her to no end. Every time she tried to disregard it, it just got more persistent, telling her that this wasn't right. But what wasn't right about it? She was allowed to do whatever she wanted with Jet. Sokka had backed down a little and was (at the moment) okay with a possible relationship between her and Jet, so she wasn't doing anything behind his back, and she certainly wasn't doing anything that he wouldn't like. Sure, it had taken a lot of persuasion, but in the end he had grudgingly agreed to keep his nose out of her business. Why should she feel guilty if she wasn't doing anything wrong?

Katara realized that she hadn't been spending a lot of time with her family lately. Was that the problem? '_It could be,' _she answered herself. But she got the feeling that that wasn't all of it. Could it have something to do with a problem in her life? She thought harder, thinking of every problem that she could have possibly left unsolved. The only thing she could think of that was a little puzzling in her life was Aang and his peculiar behavior.

'_Maybe it does have to do with Aang,'_ Katara thought. _'Something is wrong with him, but I can't seem to place my finger on it. That could explain why I'm feeling so guilty – I'm not spending enough time trying to figure out Aang's problem.'_

Though it still didn't explain why her conscience nagged her when she was around Jet (what did he have to do with Aang's problem?), Katara was fairly confident this was the source of her guilty feelings, and so she resolved to set about solving the increasingly mysterious puzzle that was her best friend. She observed that he was having a lot of mood swings lately. One moment he would be his usual blithesome self, all bright and carefree, and the next he would be sullen and dispirited. What was up with that?

'_Wait, that's what happened tonight!'_ she reminded herself. _'One minute he was fine, laughing lightheartedly at the absurd argument between Sokka and Toph, and the next he was giving me a hug lacking the enthusiasm he usually put into everything he did.'_

'_Or was he fine?'_ she questioned herself. _'Right before he left to go to bed, he said he had to ask me something. And what was with all of the nervous stammering and embarrassed blushing? The last time I checked, those symptoms were caused by-'_

"No," she said out loud, accidentally bringing the conversation outside of her head. But she didn't care at the moment. She was too busy trying to deal with the possibility of this unforeseen revelation she had just had. "Don't be stupid, that wasn't what that meant."

'_Well, did you consider what he might have been going to ask you?'_ a voice in her head rivaled her.

'_No, I didn't really think too much about it. I remember hearing something along the lines of 'wondering if you would'-'_ she stopped to think for a moment.

'_It sounded like he was asking me to do something with him. Like an activity.'_

Katara pressed her knuckles up to her forehead, concentrating hard as she searched her brain for an answer. After she had informed Aang of her exceedingly good news, his question had curiously disappeared. But why would that be? Unless –

'_No way,'_ she told herself firmly, pushing the ludicrous though away, unwilling to accept it as a possibility. _'That's definitely not what he was about to say.'_

And yet she couldn't shake off the feeling that part of the puzzle had already been put together.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

"Hm. Well, what does my attractive waiter suggest?"

Jet sighed exasperatedly, growing quickly irritated with the girls' coquettish behavior. It was always the night shift that was the worst because all the girls in the area would dress up and come to his restaurant with high hopes to get him as a waiter and use the opportunity to flirt audaciously with him. Jet always tried to avoid working the night shift for this reason, but his boss almost always insisted that he did, most likely due to all the "customers" Jet attracted to the restaurant. But Jet was so fed up with all of their seductive talk and behaviors – couldn't they just leave him alone for ten seconds?

"I'll be right back with menus."

Jet turned abruptly and stalked off to snatch a few menus. He wasn't stupid; he knew that the girls just wanted to keep talking and flirting with him, but he wasn't about to give them that opportunity.

"Here."

He dropped the menus on the table and walked away, saying, "I'll be back later to take your orders."

All of the girls scowled disappointedly at his retreating back and he smirked.

'_Now maybe they'll realize I'm not interested in them and finally leave me alone.'_

Jet's thoughts strayed to Katara. He was ecstatic that he was going to be taking her to the ball in less than two weeks' time. And what was more was that she had loved the necklace; the look on her face when he presented it to her made it worth every coin he had spent on it.

Of course, he had planned on taking Katara to the ball for quite a while before she and her friends even found out about it. He was a personal friend of the Meesangs; he had helped them out a while back and they were eternally grateful for it. When they began planning the ball, they told Jet he could invite whoever he wanted, so he had added Katara and the others' names on the guest list and invitations had been sent to their house. He knew that he wouldn't have too much of a problem getting Katara to like him again, but he hadn't suspected that it would be as easy as it had been. And now he was one of the luckiest guys ever to be going with Katara. In his opinion, the dance couldn't come soon enough.

Jet's daydream was interrupted by the group of girls he was supposed to be serving. They were calling him over, waving madly to gain his attention. Eyebrows raised in blatant amusement, Jet tramped over to them.

"May I take your order?"

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

_The golden sun overhead shone brilliantly against the opaque, periwinkle blue sky, dousing the treacherous, rocky cliff in its chromatic rays of light. A tan girl wearing light blue robes sat on the tip of the cliff, her long, slender legs dangling over the edge as she peered down to admire the sparkling blue water beneath her. The flowing river was reflected in her eyes, accompanied with a longing look, showing that she desired nothing more than to dive into the crystal clear water below and shield her burning skin from the profound heat radiating off the sun._

_Katara stood up, trying to shake off the strange impulse to jump from the cliff and plunge into the cold water in the river. A tall, shadowed figure approached her from the side. _

"_Jump," it whispered soothingly. "The water is so cold and refreshing against the burning sun. You know you want to."_

_Katara took a tentative step forward, not entirely sure she could trust this mysterious figure. The earth beneath her foot cracked and a few large rocks tumbled down the side of the cliff and splashed into the water. The waterbender's expression turned fearful as she realized what could happen if she wasn't careful and was too trusting in this shady figure._

_A frightened Aang stepped forward to stand on Katara's other side._

"_Katara, don't do it!" he yelled to her. She complied and took a step back._

_The shadow moved closer._

"_It'll be fine," it hissed into her ear. "Just relax. The water will protect you."_

_The voice was so persuasive that Katara took another step forward, once again on the very tip of the cliff._

"_No Katara, don't listen to it! It's not safe," Aang shouted to her. He didn't reach out and pull her back because he knew that she had to make the ultimate decision on her own. But his warning never reached her ears, for at that moment, the edge of the cliff finally gave way, bringing Katara, the girl he loved so dearly, down with it._

_All of the settings melted away as Katara fell into the darkness. Aang airbended a gust of wind towards her in a futile attempt to catch her, but it was no good. All the young airbender could do was watch in blind horror as the girl of his dreams was swallowed up by a black oblivion. _

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

Aang moaned loudly at the blinding sliver of light streaming in through his window and stuffed his pillow over his head so he could reclaim sleep. He was exhausted beyond belief, having been tormented with yet another one of his atrocious nightmares. He had determined that there was some sort of message hidden in them, but he was having trouble deciphering these hidden messages. Not that he was trying too hard; he wasn't inclined to think about them and really just wished that he would stop having them.

Aang swung his legs over the bed and dragged himself out of it and onto his feet, rubbing his aching eyes. He was not feeling the slightest bit optimistic about the day as was his normal disposition; instead, he felt glum and depressed. Even days later, the young boy was in a state of numb disbelief at Katara's rejection. Well, she hadn't technically rejected him per se (he hadn't even been able to ask her!), but the pain he felt after she informed him she was going to the ball with Jet hurt as much as a rejection would. He just couldn't believe Jet had beaten him again.

Aang felt so discouraged and downhearted. With each day that passed, he felt as though Katara was slipping away more and more. He hadn't even been able to enjoy her company lately because she had been so busy with Jet; he rarely got to say "hi" to her anymore. The Avatar strongly desired Jet to leave them for good because not only was the guy stealing away the heart of the girl he loved, but he was also drawing her away from spending time with him and Sokka and Toph. And spending time with Katara was definitely one of Aang's favorite things to do.

Sighing heavily, Aang dragged his feet across the floor and out into the living room.

Sokka was sitting cross-legged on the floor at the square table in the middle of the room reading a piece of parchment that looked suspiciously like the Meesang's ball invitation. The girls were no where to be found.

Aang groaned. "Please tell me that's not that ball invitation again."

Sokka glimpsed up at him and hastily rolled the scroll up, stuffing it under the table. Aang plopped down across from Sokka and put his face in his hands, his elbows resting on the glassy wooden surface of the table.

"Whoa, what's your problem?" Sokka asked.

"Nothing," Aang lied tersely.

"Well, Toph and Katara went out for the day. Something about needing 'girl time'. So we have the house to ourselves."

The Avatar didn't respond. Sokka merely shrugged and took to staring out the window, trying to ignore his guilty conscience, which knew that the airbender was feeling down and was pushing him to do something about it. But he didn't even have the slightest idea what was wrong. How could he help if he didn't know the problem? Besides, feelings were much more Katara's expertise than his.

"Sokka?"

Sokka looked over at him. Aang had lifted his head from his hands and was staring at Sokka with an odd gleam in his eyes.

"Aang?"

"Sokka, how do you feel about Jet?"

The peculiar question startled Sokka. He blinked several times, trying to grasp what the young Avatar was getting at.

"What do you mean, how do I feel about Jet?" Sokka said, nonplussed.

The monk held back, wary of Sokka's mind; he was not keen on it jumping to the wrong conclusion.

"Do you trust him? Do you trust him with Katara?"

Sokka looked Aang directly in the eyes, his forehead furrowed. Aang stared right back, his ingenuous gray eyes shining with innocence as he patiently waited for Sokka to respond. And then it hit him.

Aang was worried about Katara; he was scared of what Jet might do to her. The time Jet had betrayed Katara's trust had really messed her up, and Aang didn't want anything like that to happen ever again. And although Sokka had trouble admitting it, he shared the same fear as the young boy sitting across from him.

Sokka sighed and turned his body around completely so as to give Aang his full attention.

"Look, Aang, it's like this. Katara's my little sister and I worry about her all the time, especially after Mom died and Yue… Yue…" his voice shook slightly. "I've become even more protective of her. I can't lose anyone else I care about. The thing I fear the most is her being hurt, emotionally or physically. But," Sokka took a deep, steadying breath and his voice became noticeably stronger.

"But I know that Katara is strong and I know that she's old enough and sensible enough to make decisions on her own. She's a fighter; she never gives up. I suppose before now, I didn't fully trust Jet; I never have. But Katara seems to, and I trust her judgment. I understand that she's growing up and she doesn't need me as much anymore, but I'll always be there for her to take my hand if she needs it."

A bittersweet smile broke out across the Avatar's face as a feeling of reassurance washed over him.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," he said ardently.

Sokka smirked at this comment, inwardly thankful that his friend had finally cheered up a bit. He got the impression that this wasn't the only thing eating at the airbender, but he didn't press the matter.

"So, what should we do today?" Aang asked, feeling a powerful urge to distract himself in order to take his mind off of Katara. It wasn't that he didn't love her; it was just that it was too painful to think about her at the moment and he was sick of feeling so miserable and depressed.

Sokka grinned mischievously.

"Well, I was thinking we should…"

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

Don't worry! This is a Kataang story. Jet may be going to the ball with Katara, but it's still Kataang. Believe me. Oh and by the way, I only added the Jet part to lengthen the chapter and because we won't see him again until chapter 7. Next chapter, Girl Talk, is a Toph and Katara only chapter. I've been looking forward to writing that chapter for a long time. Hopefully, it'll be a lot better than this chapter.

Gah, I am not writing any more dream sequences. I'm running out of ideas for them and they suck, so that was it. Yeah. Well, I'm off to force my sister's friend to watch Avatar. She hates it. We're going to strap her down in front of the T.V. Should be fun!

Oh, and thanks to all my readers and reviewers!


	5. Girl Talk

I promised myself this chapter would be out next weekend, but that didn't happen, so I made another promise to myself that this chapter would be out this weekend, and this time it actually happened! I really should be working on my history essay, but I don't want to. I hate history. Anyways, like I said, this chapter is a Katara and Toph only chapter. I figured the girls needed some bonding time. I got really sick and tired of proofreading this more than once - it was making my head spin, so I had my sister read it as well. I know there'll be a mistake - there always is! I corrected like seven mistakes in chapter three last night. I felt so stupid! 

Okay, so I gave Tokka a bit of a try in this chapter. I'll warn you, I've never done it before, so I hope it's okay. It's really not that much. I also have a few notes I forgot to put in other chapters. Well, I know that my idea of the gaang's house is almost completely different from the actual design. I began this before I realized the layout - for instance, the bedrooms. They're actually each on separate sides of the house, if you examine screenshots. So basically there is no corridor. But whatever. It's too late to change it.

For those of you still following this ( I know I hate reading author's notes, but I try to make myself read them, and I always write them so... ) I would like to thank Kumori Doragon for pointing out how many times I had spelled "forward" wrong. I seriously have no idea how that even happened, because I know how to spell it. I must blame the computer (haha, I wish). And also I want to thank Odysseus Firestone for reminding me of something I forgot, due to how I stupidly didn't bother to write it into the plan for this chapter. It wasn't a big deal, but it would have made me mad, so... Let's get on with the story!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Avatar.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

"Come on Toph, wake up!"

Katara shook the blind Earthbender gently, seeking to rouse her from her heavy slumber.

"Mmm, Katara," she whined, rolling over onto her other side so she was facing away from the zealous Waterbender. However, the move was made in vain because Katara wasn't about to give up without a fight.

"But Toph, it's time to go! You have to wake up!" she insisted, shaking Toph a bit more vigorously.

"Why?" the Earthbender groaned, yanking her covers over her head in an attempt to block out Katara's chipper voice.

"Because I planned a girl's day out for the two of us today," Katara explained eagerly.

"What?!" Toph exclaimed incredulously, shooting up in her bed, all thoughts of reclaiming sleep forgotten. "Not another one," she moaned. Sure, the Fancy Lady Day Spa hadn't been as much of a traumatizing experience as she had expected, but she was less than willing to go through it again so soon and was fairly apprehensive of what Katara had planned for this particular day.

"Yes, another one," Katara said firmly. "And don't worry; no one will be touching your feet this time." Katara's lips formed a small smile as she remembered what had happened the last time someone had tried to clean Toph's feet.

"Good," Toph muttered mutinously.

"So, instead of taking a day of relaxation, I've decided that we should spend the day shopping!"

A brief silence greeted Katara's enthusiastic words.

"You want us to go shopping?" asked Toph slowly. "What for?"

"The ball, of course!" Katara answered cheerfully.

There was another pause.

"Why would I go shopping for the ball? I'm not going," said Toph flatly.

Katara blinked. "What do you mean, you're not going?" she demanded, sitting down on the edge of Toph's mattress. "Of course you're going; we're all going!"

"Well, I'm not," Toph stated obstreperously. "I hate formal balls – believe me, I went to plenty of them when I was living with my parents, and I got sick of them real fast. And besides, I have no one to go with." The Earthbender crossed her arms over her chest in an obstinate manner.

Katara stared quiescently at her. It was Toph's final statement that had given her away. The reason she didn't want to attend the ball wasn't due to her boredom of them after having attended so many in her life; it was because she had no one to go _with_, or, rather, the person she wanted to go with had (hopefully) unintentionally rejected her. The Water Tribe girl thought for a moment, speculating the best approach to get Toph to open up, something she scarcely did.

"Do you want to go with someone, Toph?" Katara asked her softly.

Before she could think about her actions, Toph nodded.

"Would you go if you had someone to accompany you?"

Again the Earthbender found herself involuntarily moving her head up and down. What was wrong with her? It was as if she no longer had control over her body. Why was she answering these prying questions so readily?

"Toph, who would you like to go to the ball with?"

Toph shook her head, signaling that she wasn't about to reveal anything that easily.

Katara sighed disappointedly. She had been so close!

"Come on Toph, there has to be _someone_ you would like to go with," the waterbender pressed her diligently.

Again Toph shook her head.

"Just tell me," Katara persisted relentlessly. "It's not a big deal; there's nothing to be ashamed of."

This time, Toph didn't even acknowledge she had heard her.

"Please Toph? We're like sisters; sisters tell each other everything," pleaded Katara softly. "You know you can tell me anything," she added.

Toph relented, though she was still somewhat hesitant.

"Well… I guess I would kinda like to go with Sokka," she muttered finally, a small blush creeping up to her cheeks as she admitted this.

Katara gaped at her. Not only had Toph just confessed that she wanted to go to the ball with Sokka (which, incidentally, was a huge revelation itself), but her face was now lightly tinted with a rosy hue. Toph Bei Fong was blushing? Katara's initial surprise over this soon faded away, however, and her facial expression changed to one of annoying smugness. She had suspected all along that Toph liked Sokka, and here was the proof! Now all she had to do was to get her to ask Sokka to the ball…

"Toph, that's great!" said Katara sincerely, hoping to encourage the young Earthbender.

"It is?"

"Yes, because all you need to do now is ask him!"  
"Not gonna happen," Toph said flatly.

"But Toph-"

"Katara, remember what happened the last time I asked him?"

Katara scrunched up her face, trying to remember. "Oh," she said when memories of Sokka and Toph's argument flashed before her eyes.

"Yeah, 'oh'," Toph repeated gloomily.

"But you didn't technically ask him, did you? You didn't come right out and say, 'Sokka, will you go to the ball with me?' did you?"

"Well, not exactly like that, but still. I asked him if he wanted to accompany me as a friend, which is close enough if you ask me. And look what happened. Why would he want to go with me anyway, especially with girls like _Suki_ around?"

"Toph, don't say that," Katara told her sternly. "You know Sokka would want to go with you."

"Then why did he turn me down the other night?" the Earthbender demanded.

"That was just Sokka being Sokka and messing things up as usual, I'm sure he didn't mean it-"

"He sounded like he meant it to me," Toph huffed stubbornly.

Katara sighed heavily. This was going to be a lot harder than she had expected. She placed a consoling hand on the blind girl's shoulder.

"Toph, people make mistakes. That's all Sokka did; made a mistake. He felt horrible afterwards, you know."

"Then why hasn't he apologized?" Toph asked, skepticism clearly present in her tone.

"He just needs time. It's only been a few days; just give him another day or so; I'm positive he'll apologize. Don't worry about it, Toph. I know for a fact he wants to go with you."

Toph smiled faintly, suddenly feeling a lot more reassured and happy.

"Thanks, Katara. Maybe I will give him another shot."

Katara returned the smile, momentarily forgetting that the Earthbender couldn't see it. The two friends sat in a comfortable silence for a minute before Toph spoke up again.

"So, what about you and Aang?"

The instant the words rolled off her tongue, Toph regretted them. Her brain worked furiously to come up with a solution to take back what she said or to come up with some witty statement to correct herself, but it was too late; the damage was already done. She hadn't meant to say it; she had only meant to turn the conversation away from her and her love life and focus it on Katara, and in the process of doing so she had uttered the first thing that popped into her mind. But she had most certainly not meant for _that_ to slip out.

A stunned silence greeted her words.

"W-what?" Katara stammered, not entirely sure she had heard correctly.

"Nothing," Toph lied quickly, attempting to steer the conversation out of these dangerous waters. "So, about this shopping trip-"

"Did you just say, 'What about me and Aang'?" Katara demanded, completely disregarding Toph's fruitless attempt to change topics.

"Uh… maybe," Toph responded evasively, silently berating herself for even starting this whole conversation in the first place. She didn't think Aang would appreciate his secret being told, especially not to Katara, the person whom it was concerning. After all, it had been a total accident that she had discovered it anyways. Sure, she had always suspected that Aang had strong feelings for Katara – how could she not, with the way his heart rate skyrocketed whenever he was around her (especially when she touched him) and the way he occasionally stuttered nervously around her (sometimes she even noticed that all the blood rushed up to his face, something she had learned was called "blushing")? – but she had never been one-hundred percent certain that he loved Katara until she unintentionally heard him confessing it to himself in his room a few days ago.

Despite her astute suspicions, Toph had been quite shocked when she heard Aang saying that he loved Katara; actually hearing it come out of Aang's mouth was a great deal more different than speculating it and considering it as a possibility, no matter what evidence she may have had prior to that.

"Toph." Katara's sharp voice broke through the Earthbender's musings.

"Yeah?"

"What did you just say about Aang and I?" Toph could hear the seriousness in her tone as well as a hint of something she strongly suspected was curiosity.

"Well," Toph began slowly, trying desperately to make something up on the spot. "I was just wondering… since Sokka and I might be going together, who are… who are you and Aang going to go with?" she finished quickly, proud of herself for making up something so plausible.

"Oh," Katara said, relaxing a little. Part of her didn't fully believe Toph – there was something in her tone that suggested she was lying, and there was the way she had been so hesitant…

"I'm going with Jet. Didn't you know that?"

"Are you serious?" Toph exclaimed loudly. "When did this happen?"

"A couple of days ago," Katara replied. "I'm sorry, I thought you knew already."

"How could I know? You never told me."

"Oh, I guess I didn't. Well, Jet asked me a couple of nights ago just before I came home. It was so sweet!" Katara said.

"What about Aang?" Toph asked quietly, feeling a rare, tight sensation in her chest. She knew Aang must have really wanted to go to the ball with Katara, and this news would surely only worsen the melancholic behavior he had been exhibiting over the last few days. "Who's he going to go with?"

Katara didn't respond for a few minutes.

"I don't know," she answered eventually. "I hadn't even thought about it," she admitted.

"I doubt he'll care, though," Katara continued, more to herself than to the person sitting directly in front of her. "I mean, who would he want to go with? There was Meng from the Fortuneteller's village – I'm pretty sure she had a little crush on him – and there were a few girls from Kyoshi Island, but it's the same deal as with Suki, none of them would be able to come to the dance…" she trailed off thoughtfully.

"Okay Toph, wash up quickly and be ready to leave in ten minutes. I want us to be able to find the perfect outfits, and who knows how long that may take. We have no time to waste!"

Toph grumbled her assent and clambered out of her bed. Katara left the room, grinning eagerly, and wandered into her own bedroom.

As she entered the room, her light blue eyes fell upon a medium sized flower inside a small, water-filled vase that was sitting on her bedside table. It was a pretty flower; the long petals on the outside were white on the bottom and gradually changed to a lovely light pink; the tips were the darkest and belled out slightly, giving the flower a wavy shape. The very center of the flower was pure pink. Smiling, she remembered how she had found that flower. She had woken up the morning after Jet asked her to the ball to find it lying on the smooth surface of the mahogany living room table. She didn't know who it belonged to or where it came from, but it was a gorgeous flower and she wasn't about to let it go to waste, so she had snatched up a vase from a nearby stand, bended some water into it, and dropped the flower into it neatly. She remembered then scrupulously carrying the vase to her bedroom, placing it neatly on her bedside table, and drawing back to admire the effect.

"Hey Katara, are we going to leave now or are you just going to make me stand here all day?" Toph called to her from the living room.

"Coming," Katara said, tearing her gaze away from the flower and hurrying out of her bedroom.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

"How about this one?"

The salesclerk held out a full-length, forest green gown with medium length sleeves and a high collar.

Katara scrutinized it critically for a moment before shaking her head, saying,

"Nah, the cut of the sleeves doesn't really suit me."

The salesclerk gave her an exaggeratedly pained look, clearly aggravated by Katara's admonitions, before adding the dress to the rack already laden down with dozens of gowns the fastidious Katara had spurned.

Toph grumbled loudly, harried by Katara's meticulous standards. "C'mon Katara, I've already got my outfit, can't you just find something already?"

It hadn't taken long for Toph to grow sick and tired of hearing the endless conversations about how each dress looked specifically, every minute detail pointed out and observed carefully, mainly because she was blind and was unable to see exactly what they were talking about.

Katara had handpicked Toph's entire attire for the ball. And although she couldn't see how the clothes looked on her for herself, Toph had positively glowed with pride upon hearing Katara's genuine comments on how beautiful Toph had looked in them. Even though she acted nonchalant, once again throwing on the appearances don't matter act, she and Katara both knew that deep down she did care, and it warmed her heart to hear Katara's remarks. Of course, appearance was no where near the top of her list of most important things in life, but she appreciated being told she was pretty every once and a while nonetheless.

"Okay then, what about _this_?" said the clerk, placing a heavy emphasis on the final word as she pulled yet another kimono off the rack with a flourish, a triumphant smirk accompanying the smug look of approval she wore upon seeing the expression on the young Waterbender's face as she took in the kimono's appearance.

Words failed Katara as she stared transfixed at the gown, her vivacious blue eyes shining delightedly.

"Oh wow," she finally whispered, reaching out to take the silky folds of fabric between her tan fingers. Toph could only "see" a vague, black-and-white outline of the kimono, but it was blatantly obvious to tell that it was something exceptional by Katara's reaction to it. Toph let out a sigh of relief, smiling wryly. Now maybe they could _finally_ get out of this fancy store and continue with their day.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

No matter how many times she tried to busy herself and confine her thoughts to the depths of her mind, they kept swimming back to the front, where Katara eventually had to acknowledge them.

Aang. Aang, Aang, Aang. What was it with him? Why was he making her so confused and how did he keep popping up into her mind and almost every conversation she had recently had? Why was this happening to her all of a sudden? She didn't know what to do, so she tried to forget about it and push it away, but the big question remained in the front of her mind, despite her valiant attempts to keep it away: Did Aang like her as more than friends?

Katara stopped dead in her tracks, agitated and a little appalled by the thought. There was no possible way that could be true; there was no evidence to prove that claim was apodictic. She resumed her walk, still deep in thought. Aang was just a great friend, right? She failed to remember a previous time when she had even considered having a relationship with Aang different from the one she did now, but presently she couldn't stop dwelling on it after what Toph had told her – or hinted at, more like. Could she possibly be right? Did Aang really feel that way about her?

A part of her had already decided that she didn't want to know the answer and was resolutely determined to avoid any kind of evidence that corroborated the question. If Aang did have a crush on her, he would undoubtedly want to go out with her. And Katara was deathly afraid of anything changing between the two of them. She didn't want to change their relationship from a wonderful, life-long friendship to something a great deal more intimate. The thought was scary, wonderful, impossible, and alluring all at the same time. It made Katara's head spin rapidly; there were too many questions, too many possibilities, and it was just too confusing! Endless scenarios flashed before her eyes, each new one more illogical and absurd than the previous one. What if they started going out, and then something bad happened between them that ruined their friendship forever? What if –

_Wait a second,_ Katara halted her perpetual trail of thoughts as she realized what she was thinking about. _Since when have I considered the possibility of Aang and I _having_ an amorous relationship, let alone ruining one? And when did I establish the fact that Aang even wants to be romantically involved with me?_

Katara had to admit, there was something funny about the way Toph had phrased her question back in her bedroom that morning. _"What about you and Aang?"_ Her ambiguous word choice and the tone of her voice seemed to insinuate that Katara and Aang were an item; it made it sound as though they were… _together_. But what in the world could have put that derisory idea into the young Earthbender's head? She had to have ascertained it somewhere; these types of things didn't just randomly pop into people's minds. And then there was Toph's blatantly regretful and evasive behavior and her fruitless attempts to change topics. _And don't forget her question about who Aang was going to go to the dance with, _Katara reminded herself.

Truthfully, Katara had given the topic a whole load of speculation a few nights ago in bed, but in a slightly different sense. She had been contemplating not who specifically Aang would want to go with, but whether or not he would want to go with anyone at all. And as Katara thought over all of this again, she realized that the reason she had been wondering that was because she had never really viewed Aang as a guy – as someone who would grow older and be interested in dating girls; she had never really seen him as someone like _Sokka_. And now she understood that was why she was having such a hard time grasping the idea of Aang liking her, or anyone, for that matter; it was just that she had never considered him in that sense. She had never thought of him that way; she had never thought of him as a _guy_. To her, he was someone who she really cared about, someone to have fun with and spend time with, someone who made her smile and cheered her up when she was down, someone who she had grown to love like a brother, and someone who she genuinely needed. Yes, she acknowledged that Aang was growing up, but before now she had never really grasped what "growing up" meant; she had never fully absorbed the meaning behind those words that were so commonly used.

So, who would Aang have asked? With Sokka and Toph possibly going together, that would leave Katara as Aang's only option. And Katara couldn't help but wonder if Jet hadn't asked her to the ball, would Aang have? Would he have done it as a friendship type of thing or something more? Would he choose her if there were other girls available for him to choose from? Did he really try to ask her to the ball the previous night?

Katara didn't know the answer to any of these questions; they only served the purpose of increasing her frustration and confusion. Aang had never presented her with any indication that he liked her in a more-than-friends way. Or had he? Had she missed something? Katara thought back to moments that could manifest that hypothesis. Katara did perceive that Aang always seemed to be extra-nice to her and generally acted very gregarious around her; he jumped on any excuse at all to spend time with her. However, most of their alone time was spent practicing waterbending. Aang did need to master the element soon – was this not just an example of fierce determination and discipline?

Katara often caught the young Avatar staring avidly at her, a dreamy expression caressing his gentle features, always looking quickly away when he saw she had caught him. And the Waterbender would never forget that captivated smile he was wearing when he looked at her the first day they met…

_So maybe there were signs,_ Katara thought. _But it still doesn't prove anything,_ she added obstinately.

As though trying to refute her, her mind replayed recent memories in her head. She reluctantly recalled the strange gleam that flickered across Aang's stormy gray eyes as he lay on top of her that day they were practicing waterbending at the creek and the downcast, saddened look those same eyes held not too long after that as she revealed to him her good news at having attained Jet as a date for the ball. Very deep down in the bottom of her heart, she knew the meaning and cause behind both of those looks – as she had said before, it was Aang's expressive eyes that gave him away – but her mind would not allow her to become consciously aware of that knowledge.

Vaguely, Katara noticed that Toph had sat down on a nearby bench, complaining about having to carry so many bags, some of which weren't even hers, she pointed out acidly, but the Waterbender was to deep in thought to be bothered too much about it and found Toph's incessant talking to be distracting, so she blocked it out.

She sat down neatly on the bench beside Toph, raising a hand to her head and massaging her throbbing temples as she did so. Why was everything so confusing now? There were so many unanswerable questions, and she felt herself getting a major headache as she mulled over them and tried in vain to solve them. Was it even possible to have so many thoughts rampaging through her head at one time? The major problem was that they all stemmed from the one question she no longer had an answer to; how did Aang feel about her?

If she had been asked this question a week ago, Katara would not have hesitated for the briefest second in responding. He was her best friend; they relied on one another and were inseparable. They had loads of extraordinary memories together, good and bad; they laughed and played through the good times and helped each other get through the bad times, and in the end everything turned out alright. Aang gave Katara hope at times when she believed all was lost, and she was positive that she gave him hope as well, especially during the hard times he was going through now with Appa missing. For a brief second, Katara tried to justify Aang's mood swings and odd behavior with the flying bison's absence, but she got the sense that wasn't the entire answer.

If she had been asked about her and Aang's relationship now, Katara thought, she would be unable to give a fully honest answer. She felt completely ambivalent towards _anything_ having to do with Aang lately; her whole world had been turned upside down, and she had no clue what to do to put it right again. She had basically no idea what his feelings toward her were anymore, and what was worse was that she couldn't even sort out her own feelings. How did she feel about Aang? Could she possibly like him – maybe even love him? Was she hiding from her own feelings behind the best friend and motherly front she was putting up? The thought of her and Aang having amorous feelings for each other strangely intrigued her in a way, but at the same time it absolutely terrified her, and she refused point blank to accept the possibility, even if it was what her heart truly desired.

Well, how did she feel about Aang having a crush on her? The first time she had thought about the question, she had pushed it away without giving it the regard it deserved. Now that she had gotten over the initial shock, she had begun to think that maybe Aang having a crush on her wasn't such a bad thing; on the contrary, it made her quite curious and a tad interested. However, this part of her was instantly covered up by the more sensible part of her that was unwilling to make a single change in her and Aang's relationship, and Katara vowed to ignore anything she encountered that may adduce her suspicions.

"Katara? Katara!"

Toph's loud voice broke through Katara's prolonged trance.

"Huh?" Katara blinked a few times and looked over at the girl sitting on her left side.

"You haven't been listening to a word I've been saying, have you?" Toph said irritably.

"Er… sorry," muttered Katara shamefacedly, her thoughts still on Aang. "So, what were you saying?" she asked hurriedly, hoping to distract her mind.

Toph rolled her eyes. "I was saying that since you were so excited about it this morning, I was wondering how you were getting to the ball. Is Jet picking you up or are you going to meet him there?"

"What? Oh, we haven't really talked about it…" Katara trailed off inattentively. It was such a trivial matter; she had far more important things to worry about at the time.

Toph wondered vaguely where all of her enthusiasm had gone.

"Okay, so where do we go next?"

Katara examined her arms, which were laden down with heavy shopping bags containing everything they had bought so far.

"We still need jewelry."

"We don't need any more jewelry – there's a ton of it back at the house, remember?" said Toph.

"Then the last thing we need is shoes."

Toph's expression changed into one of deep repugnance.

"No way. There's no way I'm wearing shoes," she said defiantly.

"You won't wear thin ones?"

"No!"

"Will you at least try them on?" Katara pleaded.

Toph was about to respond with a contumacious "no" when she heard the pleading note in Katara's tone. She sighed. She supposed she had to give wearing shoes a shot.

"I guess so," she muttered resentfully.

Beaming, Katara grabbed Toph's hand and yanked her eagerly into the nearest shoe store.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

The flamboyant, pick-orange sun was already setting in the west by the time the two friends had finished shopping. Katara had managed to pressure Toph into purchasing a pair of thin, silky flats in a dark shade of green. Toph hated how they felt – the slippery feel on her feet gave her the impression that she was on ice again, only this time she was still able to see, though it was noticeably harder. She knew she wouldn't wear them for long at the dance. Afterwards they had chosen to stop at a fancy restaurant in the Upper Ring for dinner before returning home.

"What's the most daring thing you've ever done?" Katara asked Toph.

Toph thought for a moment.

"I guess that'd be keeping my earthbending secret from my parents and then running away from them," she answered finally.

"Oh," Katara said. Their multiple purchases were resting on the floor under the table as the two girls shared stories while finishing their dinner.

"Okay, your turn to ask me a question."

Toph flashed Katara a mischievous grin.

"What went on between you and Jet the first time you met him?"

Katara choked on her tea and was grateful that Toph couldn't see the guarded expression she was wearing on her face.

"Nothing," she lied promptly.

"Katara, you've already used this line on me before. It didn't work then, and it's not going to work now. I answered all your questions – now you have to answer mine." Toph folded her arms across her chest and tapped her foot to enforce her point.

Katara sighed, and upon seeing no way to avoid the question, she replied,

"Well, I guess I kind of liked him."

Toph raised her eyebrows skeptically.

"Kind of?" she repeated.

"Okay, so I had a huge crush on him," Katara relented. "I mean, how could I not? He was tall, and strong, and handsome, and brave…"

"So, what happened?" prompted Toph.

Katara was quiet for a while.

"Well?"

"To make a long story short, he just… he just betrayed my trust and a whole village was almost wiped out because of how naïve I was," the Waterbender said shortly.

Toph didn't know what to say, so she remained silent.

After a few minutes, Katara broke the silence.

"Are you ready to head back now?"

Toph nodded and bent down to pick up a few of the shopping bags so Katara wouldn't be responsible for carrying all of them home.

"Uh, thanks for bringing me Katara. It was a lot of fun and you've made me actually begin to look forward to the ball."

Katara smiled.

"Actually, I should be thanking you. How ridiculous do you think I would have looked shopping for all of these fancy clothes on my own?" she teased as Toph laughed a bit. Then she turned serious. "But we still have one little problem – Sokka."

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

One more note: I have no idea where they got the money for all those clothes, but they did somewhere. I mean, where did they get the money for the Appa posters and the day spa?

Thanks to all my readers and reviewers, see you in chapter six!


	6. Family Time

I know, I know; this has been the longest time I've gone without updating. There are several reasons why. First off, this was a hard chapter to write because it's mainly a filler chapter and I didn't have much to write about, and it took me a while to get past my writers block. Second of all, we recently had a major power outage for two days straight, meaning no computer, and that was when I needed my computer because I was typing this chapter up. My final reason is my friend's Quinceanera was yesterday and there were a lot of time consuming preparations for that. On the bright side, I'm on vacation all week long AND I've already written all of chapter seven, which will be out in about a week, I am proud to say, my fastest update ever.

And so I am sorry for the delay, but this is out now and chapter seven will be out very soon. Enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Avatar but I am feeling strong anger at those who do for keeping us waiting so long!!

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

The instant Katara and Toph reentered the refined house, a harassed looking Sokka was upon them, bombarding them with questions as to their previous whereabouts.

"Take it easy, Sokka; let us get through the door first," Katara said calmly, shoving him aside to drop her bags on the low table in the center of the room. Once the scratchy, paper handles had been released from her hands, she shook them out, getting the blood circulating through them again. Aang, who was sitting cross-legged on one of the plump, emerald cushions surrounding the table, looked up at her as she stretched her wrists and arms.

"Hi, Katara," he said, smiling adoringly at her.

"Hey, Aang," she replied, averting her eyes as she sat down on the cushion beside him.

"Where have you guys been?" demanded Sokka again from the doorway, not having moved an inch since the girls arrived home.

"Sugarqueen already told you earlier – we went shopping," Toph said coldly, following Katara's suit and brushing roughly past him to dump her bags on the table.

"All day long?" Sokka asked incredulously. "You guys honestly wasted the entire day _shopping_?"

"That's right," Katara asserted earnestly.

"But what did you go shopping _for_?"

"The ball," Toph responded, her tone retaining that same icy cold edge to it. "We needed new outfits to wear to the ball – it's only a little over a week away."

Sokka's tan face registered surprise. "Why did you go shopping for the ball? I thought you weren't going."

"Who told you that? I never said that," Toph snapped peevishly. Sokka involuntarily recoiled at her petulant attitude. "I am going."

"Alone?"

"Yes, alone," the blind Earthbender retorted, her nostrils flaring. "Is that a problem with you?"

An uncomfortable silence ensued and Katara acknowledged it was best to leave her brother and Toph alone. Without thinking about her actions, she took hold of Aang's hand and pulled him gently to his feet, muttering, "C'mon Aang, let's go."

Katara made to exit the room, her hand still tightly clasped with Aang's, and Aang followed without protest, only too happy to comply.

The moment the two were out of sight, Toph jammed her hand into one of the paper shopping bags, the sound of it crinkling noisily blocking out nearly all other sound from her ears as she rummaged around through it under the pretense of searching for something. Her back was defiantly turned towards Sokka. Over the noise of the bag, she heard a shuffling noise as Sokka took a tentative step closer to her, searching for the right words. He opened and closed his mouth several times noiselessly. Finally, he cleared his throat and tried again.

"Toph?" he began hesitantly.

Toph made a small, indecisive sound from the depths of her throat to let him know he had her attention, but she didn't bother to turn around to face him.

"I just wanted to… you know, apologize," Sokka continued meekly, praying she was listening intently to him. "For… for what I said a while back."

There, he said it! Now that that was off his chest –

"Do you really consider that a substantial apology for everything that happened that night?" she asked severely.

"What? No, Toph -" Sokka attempted to say weakly.

"Do you know how much you hurt me that night?" Toph spoke over him, her voice level escalating with every syllable. "You had no right to shoot me down and insult me like that!"

"But Toph -" interjected Sokka feebly.

"You could have just been straightforward with me and told me that you didn't want to go with me; there was no reason to humiliate me-"

"Toph -"

"And then compare me to other girls you've 'hung out' with -" the young Earthbender continued, as though she hadn't even heard the warrior's weak protests. She was on a roll and she _had_ to get this burden off her chest and apprise how she felt about the situation – she was never one to retain her emotions bottled up inside, and it was an immense relief to tell Sokka precisely how she felt.

"Toph," Sokka insisted, more urgently this time, but it was in vain because by this point she was implacable.

"And afterwards act as though nothing had happened and everything was all fine and dandy between us!" she positively screamed, twirling around to face Sokka for the first time, her face contorted wrathfully.

The Water Tribe warrior was utterly stunned. He had no idea how strongly their argument had affected Toph, nor did he ever stop to think about it.

"Toph, I'm sorry," Sokka yelled in return, raising his voice only to ensure that his point and sincerity got across. "I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean to hurt you – I didn't mean to fight with you, and I most certainly didn't mean to turn you down. In fact, I actually _wanted_ to go with you to the ball!"

At last he had admitted the thing he had been forcing himself to own up to for days. He regarded Toph sheepishly, waiting nervously for her reaction.

Toph was rooted to the spot, unable to believe what she was hearing. Her ears had never deceived her before, so why would they now? She was really hearing this. He seriously wanted to go with her? Even after the jests she made at Suki before? How?

"You – you want to go with me?" she asked softly, her attitude and voice level having changed considerably in the past few seconds.

"Yeah, I do." The simple, honest sincerity rang clearly throughout Sokka's tone.

"And Toph…"

Toph's ears perked up, listening attentively as she subconsciously held her breath, waiting for the words to fall from his lips.

"I really am sorry."

This time Toph would have had to been completely tone deaf if she failed to recognize the truthfulness behind his words.

"I know," she murmured quietly. After all, she did posses the awfully useful ability to detect lies. "I'm sorry too, for yelling at you, and – and I'm glad we're going to the ball together. We are going together, right?" she inquired sharply.

"I don't know," Sokka said in mock dubiety. "I never did hear a definite 'yes' or 'no' from you." He grinned slyly at her as she punched him playfully on the arm.

"You already know my answer, knucklehead, stop playing dumb or I'm gonna have to change it and hook up with Twinkletoes instead."

Sokka's face formed into a disbelieving rictus. "You wouldn't," he said, half of him believing in her words nonetheless.

Toph pretend to contemplate this alternative for a moment, laughing inside when she detected a surge of jealousy course through the boy in front of her.

"I wouldn't be so sure. Katara tells me he's got some great tattoos."

And with that she took off, leaving a disgusted and infuriated Sokka behind to process everything he had just heard.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

The previous day she had spent with Toph had made Katara think. A lot. And by the end the day, Katara's reflections had caused her to realize something, something that sent a painful stab of guilt and remorse throughout her; she had been neglecting her family, the people that were always there for her and mattered most to her in the world.

For the past week and a half, she had been absolutely smitten with Jet, and in her crazy obsession, she had spent just about every waking moment with him, save for the past day, and together they had explored the entire city. And although it was great to spend time with new people, Katara understood she had been spending a little _too_ much time with Jet and had been taking her friends for granted. Being with Toph made her remember how much she missed Aang and his optimism, Toph and her stubbornness, and Sokka and his sarcasm, and how much she longed to spend time with them.

So Katara woke up that morning with the full intention of spending the whole day with her friends, most curiously not sparing Jet even the tiniest thought, a drastic change from the last couple of days when every other sentence mentioned him at least once.

Leaping out of bed, Katara whipped back her flowing window curtains and the sunlight poured in. The pellucid periwinkle blue sky and temperate climate matched her mood perfectly. She spent a few more moments taking in the tranquil scenery, breathing deeply and feeling peaceful before heading out of her room to greet everyone and inform them of her plans.

"Good morning," Katara addressed her friends airily once she reached the living room.

Aang's face lit up like a light bulb as she entered and he couldn't resist smiling his award-winning smile at her. "Hey, Katara."

"Hey Aang. Hey Toph. Where's Sokka?"

"Right here," announced her brother from the doorway in which she had just entered. He strode unconcernedly over to a cushion and plopped down onto it with an exaggerated effort.

Katara narrowed her eyes shrewdly. "And where have you been this morning?"

"In my room. Why?"

"Doing what?"

"I dunno. Is there a problem?" He stared at her hard in the eyes.

"Never mind," Katara muttered, deciding to ignore the mischievous air surrounding him. "Anyway, I've been thinking. Spending the day with Toph yesterday made me realize how long it's been since we've spent time together as a family, so that's just what we're going to do today – spend the entire day together!"

"Great!" Aang exclaimed eagerly. "What are we going to do?"

Katara's face dimmed. "I'm not sure," she admitted.

"You mean to tell me you created a family bonding day for us and yet you didn't take the time to plan what we're going to do?" Sokka cried indignantly.

"Hey, how about you stop complaining and think of a plan yourself, Mr. Plan Guy!" the Waterbender retorted heatedly. "There has to be something we'll all enjoy doing in the city, right Toph?"

Toph shrugged half-heartedly.

"I know, why don't we go sky-diving?" suggested Aang. Everyone turned to stare at him oddly.

"Sky-diving?" Sokka repeated doubtfully.

"Aang, I don't exactly think we would be allowed to sky-dive over the city," mused Katara carefully. "I mean, don't you think the citizens and Dai Li would get mad at us? We know how uptight they are, and we don't want to get into any more trouble."

"I guess you're right," Aang said, slightly crestfallen.

Toph smirked. "Like I said before, Ba Sing Se is just a load of walls and rules. I personally think we should find another Earthbending tournament."

"Are you kidding me?" Katara said. "Where do you propose we find an Earthbending tournament in the Upper Ring of the city? You remember the Earth King's party; I doubt any of those people in fancy kimonos would earthbend if they could, much less in a secret tournament."

"Who said we had to stay in the Upper Ring?"

Katara hesitated. "No one, but -"

"Yeah, I agree with Toph. That last tournament was awesome!" interrupted Sokka, a maniac gleam flashing through his eyes.

"So it's settled. Let's head down to the middle and lower rings." Toph rose and started towards the door.

"No, nothing's settled," Katara stopped her angrily. "Aang and I never agreed to go look for this nonexistent tournament. First off, I doubt there are any 'secret earthbending tournaments' here, and second of all, not all of us like those type of things," she said pointedly. "The whole point is to spend the day together – therefore, we need to decide what to do as a team and agree on it." She crossed her arms in a gesture of defiance.

"Well, what does Sweetness want to do?" Toph inquired in a falsely polite sugar-coated voice dripping with sarcasm.

Katara glared at her haughtily, choosing not to respond to her childish jibe. After all, she still had no idea how she wanted to spend the day. However, Toph left her no time to think before pointing an accusatory finger at her.

"See! You don't even know what you want to do!"

"I'll think of something!"

"When, next -"

"All right, all right," Sokka intervened, silencing them both. "Enough arguing. I have a proposition. Why don't we walk down to the middle and lower rings and look for Toph's earthbending tournament and since Katara doesn't know what she wants to do, she can look for something she wants to do, and then we can go from there. Agreed?" He regarded the quarrelsome girls sternly as the nodded brusquely.

"Fine," Katara said, uncrossing her arms and accompanying Sokka and Toph out the door. Aang promptly airbended himself to his feet and scrambled up to Katara, falling into step beside her to chat animatedly with her. Jet may be taking her to the ball, but that in no way meant Aang couldn't spend quality time with her, right? Besides, the battle to win over her heart was far from over.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

"Toph, just face fact, we've been searching for hours and there's nothing -"

"Shut it, Snoozles, there has to be one here," Toph said obstinately, slamming a hand to the ground to enhance her abilities to see underground. Sokka rolled his eyes impatiently, turning away from the tenacious Earthbender.

"Hey, where did Aang and Katara disappear to?"

Toph shrugged dismissively, adding as an afterthought,

"They probably went someplace more private where they could spend some _quality_ time together."

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

A violent gust of wind thundered past, rattling the assorted trinkets on display in the street-side stalls assembled there along the cobblestone road. The owner of a particular stall that had been overturned in the wind's merciless path was scurrying around in a frenzy to retrieve his scattered inventory. He glared after the source of wind in cold disapproval, soon shifting his reproachful glare towards a girl clad in blue robes who was panting heavily as she tried valiantly to catch up with whatever was causing the enormous gusts of wind. Her eyes focused plainly in front of her, she didn't see one of the vender's products roll out into the street and directly in the path of her feet, resulting in a sickening crunching noise as she stepped on something round and green. Katara winced and halted, stooping down to pick up the ripe cabbage she had just trampled.

"Er… sorry," she muttered, tossing a useless cabbage with her average-sized footprint embedded into it back to its owner. The green-capped guy just stared disbelievingly at her, looking highly affronted, and Katara hurried away.

At last, exhausted and gasping for breath, Katara arrived at her destination, clutching at a stitch in her side.

Aang grinned at her and gestured out over the hill he had brought her to.

"See, I told you it would be worth it. Look at the view!"

Katara paused for a moment to absorb her surroundings. She was atop the exact same hill Jet had brought her to on their first night out together; the hill with a breathtaking view overlooking the entire city; a very romantic place in her opinion, especially as (once again) it was almost sunset.

"It is worth it," Katara replied delicately, not possessing the heart to tell him she had already been up here before with Jet. Aang seemed so proud to have found it and showed it to her and she hated to crush his bubble. "It's beautiful."

"It is beautiful," he agreed, captivated.

Katara was acutely conscious that Aang wasn't looking at the city when he said this; instead, his innocent gray eyes were fixed on her.

Unnerved, Katara sat down neatly on the edge of the hill and avoided his intense gaze by staring unseeingly over the gigantic city. She sensed Aang join her, plopping down on her right side without saying a word.

It had been like this all day. Katara forced herself to ignore the way Aang looked at her, forced herself to tear away from his adoring, loving gazes and dismiss them by engaging in conversation with Sokka and Toph, pretending nothing was happening. She had made a strict vow and she did not intend on breaking it.

A gentle brushing against her hand, which was planted firmly on the grass in order to support her body as she reclined, caused her to start and whip her head around to face Aang. She looked down at her hand and was shocked to see Aang's own tattooed hand on top of it. More perturbed than ever, she raised her eyes up to Aang. He was staring stolidly over the city, acting as though he hadn't just taken her hand, the redness that had risen up to his pale cheeks giving him away.

A wave of déjà vu crashed over her – she was sitting in about the same spot as last time on a hill overlooking the city near sunset with a guy holding her hand, though strangely this time there was no guilt plaguing her… But as before she willed the feeling away and went back to her deadpan attitude.

After remaining that way for a while in a peaceful silence, Katara decided to voice her thoughts.

"We should probably head back now. Sokka and Toph are probably worried."

Aang nodded and stood up, pulling her up with him. He didn't release her hand as she had anticipated, even hoped for, him to do. Instead, they walked down to the city hand in hand, searching for their friends.

"Aang! Katara!"

Aang and Katara spun around to see Sokka and Toph hurrying up to them. Katara dropped Aang's hand so fast it seemed as though it had burned her.

"Where have you two been?" demanded Sokka, eyeing them suspiciously.

"Out," Katara said dismissively.

"Why were you holding hands with -?"

"Can we please find somewhere to eat? I'm starving," Toph complained loudly, clutching her stomach.

"Yeah, Katara and I passed a nice looking restaurant on our way back," Aang said quickly.

Sokka relented. "Fine. Let's go."

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

"We need a table for four, please."

"Wonderful. Right this way, please."

The waiter ushered them inside and showed them to a table on the outdoor patio. "Your waiter will be with you momentarily.

The group sat down as the waiter left them to seat a new group of customers.

"Wow, it's a nice restaurant," Katara commented, glancing around surreptitiously.

The patio was painted beige; it had four sturdy pillars (also beige) that supported the forest green roof overhead. As it was dark out now that night had fallen, the golden lanterns above each table and placed strategically around the perimeter of the patio were lit, illuminating the patio softly.

"Who would have thought such a nice place could reside in the Lower Ring," Sokka mused thoughtfully, watching the shimmering lights dance around with interest.

"Sokka!" Katara reprimanded as heads turned in their direction to glare angrily at them. "Don't be so rude," she whispered, smiling nervously at the other customers in the restaurant.

"Hey, I was complimenting it," he objected defensively. "Where's our waiter, anyway?" he added, drumming his fingers on the wooden table restively.

"Katara?" asked a familiar deep voice.

"Jet?" Katara said, beguiled as she stared at the handsome boy grinning widely at her. "What are you doing here?"

"I work here. Didn't you know that?" Jet answered, stooping down to kiss her cheek. Sokka looked away pointedly. All of the teenage girls in the restaurant shot Katara horrible looks as they saw this happen, though Katara didn't seem to notice; she was too busy taking in the white apron he was wearing that she hadn't noticed before.

"No, I didn't," Katara replied, willing herself to swallow her blush. Her eyes instinctively flew over to Aang, who was sitting on her left, to see his reaction. His face was impassive. In fact, he was even… smiling?

"I haven't seen you in a few days. How've you been?"

"Good, good," she said absently, wishing he wouldn't keep acting as though she was the only person present and speak directly to her.

Jet seemed to pick up on her discomfort. "So, what are you guys doing here?"

"Just sight-seeing," Aang informed him comfortably.

Katara scrutinized him curiously; she narrowed her eyes as she observed him closely, trying to uncover some shred of evidence that his placid, calm behavior was false. She found nothing, though she couldn't shake the feeling that this was all an act he was playing in the presence of Jet. The only thing she picked up on was that he did seem to be avoiding making eye contact with her, which was something; his eyes revealed everything.

Jet nodded. "Well, I'd better take your orders before my boss fires me. What do you guys want?"

The Waterbender heard everybody ordering their dinner without really listening. For the first time since she had reunited with Jet, Katara did not feel the warm, sparkly sensation she normally experienced when in his presence. She desperately wanted to blame this lack of romantic feeling on the serious concern she had developed for Aang, but she couldn't bring herself to do it because it didn't seem right. She just didn't feel the same around Jet, and there was nothing she could do to change that.

But what was wrong with Aang, and what was up with his perpetual mood swings? What was going on in his head? Her intense state of disarray was resulting in her being distant and short with Jet. She needed something to soothe her mind so she could think clearly.

"Katara? What would you like?"

Katara raised her head up from her hands and said tiredly, "A hot cup of tea, please."

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

As the evening rolled on, it proved to be harder and harder for Aang to suppress his jealousy and retain a light-hearted grin plastered to his face, the latter steadily drooping until it become an ugly grimace. He had been enjoying a perfectly fine day with Katara when, once again, Jet had to insert his unwanted self into the picture and ruin his shortly lived happiness. The Avatar found it deplorably ironic that the restaurant he himself had chosen to eat at happened to be the one Jet worked at. Apparently, the spirits were not working alongside him.

Every little thing Jet did – the way he looked at Katara, the way he talked to her, the way he smiled at her, and especially the way he had kissed her on the cheek earlier, Aang regretfully noticed, nearly disconcerted him. So, naturally, when, as the members of the gang were finishing the remains of their dinner, Jet asked Katara for a moment alone with her and extended his hand, Aang experienced the now normal boiling rage coursing through his body.

In addition to this, neither Toph nor Sokka appeared to have adopted any kind of active interest in Katara and Jet's disappearance, not helping to alleviate Aang's storming emotions. A powerful impulse to excuse himself and eavesdrop on the couple's conversation washed over him, but common sense pointed out that there was a possibility of him being caught or, even worse, hearing or seeing something he had no desire to witness. It was this alone that kept Aang planted firmly in his seat.

Once Katara returned shortly afterwards, they paid and bade Jet goodnight before heading out into the starlit night, the florescent moon striking the path in which they were walking, illuminating it softly.

As they approached their house, Katara fell back a bit from Toph and her brother and grabbed Aang's wrist to stop him.

"What?" he asked, intrigued as to what she had to say.

Katara observed him for the millionth time that day, saying,

"Is everything alright with you?"

Aang raised his eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you've been acting sort of… odd lately."

"I have?" he inquired, feigning bewilderment.

"Yes, you have. You've been… you've just been having a lot of mood swings and you've been kind of reserved and detached. Are you okay?"

"Of course I am! Why would I not be okay?" He lowered his expressive gray eyes as he lied to her.

"I don't know, I just thought maybe something was bothering you. Something you haven't told me about?" she persisted endlessly.

Aang wavered and scratched the back of his head, internally debating whether or not to tell her what was on his mind.

"No," came his indecisive answer.

Katara detected the hesitation in her friend's tone. "You are sure?"

"Positive. I'm fine Katara. Really," he assured her as she continued to look doubtful. He finally raised his eyes up to meet hers as he said this, and Katara could instantly tell that he was hiding something; his eyes never lied.

"You keep telling yourself that," she muttered, shaking her head disappointedly as she stalked off into the house, steamed at his reserved behavior.

Aang watched her go unhappily, wondering how much farther he was going to push her away before the growing cracks in their jagged relationship deepened so much that they caused it to collapse and cave in entirely.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

"Hey, Toph?"

Toph paused in her act of retreating to her bedroom for the night and turned around.

"Yeah, Sokka?"

Sokka walked over to her. "I got you something."

He held out a wavy pink and white flower. He had stolen it from Katara's room earlier that morning, but so what? She could live without it, while he felt certain that he needed it. Sokka still felt horrible about the argument between him and Toph, no matter how he acted or what he said, and he felt he really needed something to prove to Toph that he was sorry and was looking forward to taking her to the dance, and he thought this was just the thing. Even if she couldn't see it, she would still appreciate it, and it smelled good, right?

"It's a flower," Toph said skeptically as he handed it to her.

"Yeah, it is. I really want you to know how much I regret our argument and… I don't know, I thought you might like it," he finished sheepishly, rubbing his arm. He smiled as he remembered how just a few months ago this would have been the type of thing he made fun of – giving a flower to someone you cared about. Now he realized that maybe being aloof all the time wasn't such a great strategy after all.

Toph smiled as well. "Thank you, Sokka."

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

Thanks to all my readers and reviewers!


	7. Mischievous Minds

Hey everyone, here's my fastest update ever! I know it's about five days late, but still. I went to a hypnotist show last night and I seriously regret not getting myself hypnotized. I never knew that stuff worked until last night. I'm sorry to say I'm not as into Avatar as I used to be and I've started to move on until the next season starts. That won't stop me from updating this as quickly as possible, though. Enjoy chapter seven!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Avatar.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

Sokka had never had a problem with dresses. In fact, he quite liked dresses; or, rather, he enjoyed ogling girls attired in them. But this was downright derisory.

He did not expend the least amount of blame on Toph - after all, it wasn't her fault; the problem just happened to pertain to the dress she owned. All of the accusation of this otiose excursion lay on his fastidious pest of a sister.

A button. A single button. There was a minor flaw with the dress Toph had purchased at a ridiculously high price for the Meesang's ball; a lone button had fallen off at some point in time while Toph was trying it on and had vanished. After spending ages searching the house for this petite little button, Katara had insisted Sokka go out looking for a new one to replace it. Her excuse for not going herself on the 'button searching excursion' had been that he was Toph's date and therefore should be sure that Toph's dress was perfect for the ball he was escorting her to and to see to it that it was if it wasn't, though this made no sense at all to Sokka. The button had been so minute and insignificant that it made no difference to him whether it was there or not; he hadn't even been able to determine if the button even existed, for he couldn't tell where it had fallen off in the first place.

But, of course, he was compelled to go, which was why he was currently browsing the shops throughout Ba Sing Se for a replacement button for the one lacking on Toph's dress, Aang, whom he had grumpily dragged along with him, wanting someone to share the misery of his meaningless task with, tagging alongside him.

"This is taking forever!" Sokka growled darkly, closing his eyes in frustration as he spun around to face his companion after having been turned down once again in his quest, Momo swaying on his shoulder. The blazing heat from the emerging spring sun scorched his face and neck, aggravating him as he felt his skin begin to burn, and it didn't help that no stores seemed to possess the peculiar item he was looking for and that people were starting to spare him weird looks as he ferreted from store to store requesting buttons.

Aang, standing beside him and staring off into space, didn't respond. Sokka perceived how his friend had been acting distant all afternoon. He had been nothing but dead weight; Sokka had been unable to get him to speak but a few measly words and he was not proving to be an implemental hand.

"Aang, let's spilt up," he suggested, wiping his sweaty face with his forearm. "That way we'll be able to find it faster and get home."

Aang nodded to show he understood and headed off in the opposite direction, wandering inattentively among the stores.

"Aang!"

Upon hearing his name being called, the Avatar spun around, imagining it was Sokka calling him back for something. Instead, to his profound displeasure, he discovered himself seeing no other than Jet sprinting up to him.

"Hey, it's good to see you," Jet greeted him when he reached him, panting faintly.

Aang nodded curtly, his lips pursed, saying nothing.

"Listen, I'm kind of in a hurry right now and I don't have much time to talk, so I was wondering if you would deliver a message to Katara from me concerning our date tonight."

He shot Aang a meaningful look. Aang frowned. Katara hadn't told him she was going on a date with Jet.

"Anyway, can you tell her that I'm really, really sorry but I won't be able take her out tonight? Some things have come up, but I promise to make it up to her. I was going to tell her myself, but since I found you here and I'm short on time, I figured that I might as well give you the message. Can you ensure she gets this message? We were planning on meeting each other tonight instead of me picking her up, so she wouldn't know I wasn't going to make it unless someone told her."

Aang spent a moment staring gravely at the auspicious guy in front of him. Slowly, he nodded again.

"Yeah… of course, I'll tell her right away."

Jet grinned widely. "Thanks, I knew I could count on you," he said, clapping Aang on the back in a friendly gesture. "See you around."

And with that he was off, dodging shoppers as he ran back in the direction from whence he came.

Aang picked up his feet and trudged along the tedious path sluggishly, trapped deep within the endless corridors of his mind. There was something that had genuinely rattled him when Jet mentioned taking Katara on a date. Aang knew that the two often went out together and partook in assorted activities in the city, but he had never exactly classified those little sashays as "dates." His tendentiousness had forbidden him from seeing the truth and processing that Jet and Katara were two people who had feelings for each other and would, consequentially, date. And he realized with a jolt just how far their relationship had progressed during the weeks while he had been turning a somewhat blind eye to it.

A moment later, Sokka was storming up to him and grabbing his arm forcefully to make him pick up the pace.

"Find what we need?" Aang inquired dubiously.

Sokka thrust his fist under Aang's nose and unclenched it, revealing the tiny button valued so highly by Katara and red marks where Sokka's nails had dug into his skin.

"C'mon, let's finally get back home and out of this sun," the older boy grumbled hoarsely. "I'm so thirsty I feel like I'm in the desert all over again," he added, loosening Momo's tail, which was wrapped tightly around his neck. Aang's face darkened but he remained silent. Momo gave an indignant noise of protest and flew over to Aang, glaring at Sokka reproachfully. A small smile formed on Aang's face as he reached over to stroke his pet. Momo purred delightedly and curled up on Aang's head, content with the tepid weather.

For the remainder of the journey, Aang found it impossible to take his mind off Katara and her cancelled date. Why hadn't she told him? She used to tell him everything; there were never secrets between them. When did she become so distant? And why was he having such a difficult time dealing with the fact that Katara and Jet had had a date planned for later? Had he really been so upset about Katara and Jet's relationship that he had managed to trick himself into thinking it was nonexistent? Was he that desperate to believe the relationship wasn't there?

Involuntarily, Aang heaved an enormous, bleak sigh. Everything was so puzzling. Why did he have to love her the way he did? It only made his life disconsolate and confusing.

The Water Tribe warrior beside him who was about to open the door responded immediately, cottoning on to the dismal aura surrounding his friend.

"Aang? Something up?"

Aang looked quickly at Sokka and shook his head, murmuring, "No, I'm good." He shot him one of his award-winning smiles and held it in place until the other boy conceded and shrugged listlessly, turning his attention back to the house. He was in no mood to advocate anything. Together, they entered their house.

"About time!" came Toph's aggravated voice from her bedroom upon sensing their footsteps in the living room. "Can I finally take this off, Katara?"

"Hold on just a minute – no, stay here while I retrieve that button from Sokka, I'll only be a second…"

Katara dashed out of Toph's bedroom and snatched the tiny button from Sokka. The latter made to follow her back into the room, only to sustain a blow to the chest as she blocked him from gaining entry and shoved him away.

"No, you can't go in there," she declared, stolid in her manner and tone.

"Why not?" demanded Sokka.

"Because I don't want you to see Toph's gown – it's supposed to be a surprise for the actual day of the ball," his little sister explained steadfastly.

Sokka blinked at her. "What? That's ridiculous – I don't care about that!" he pressed on rashly, attempting to skirt her and greet Toph.

"Well, I do," insisted Katara, a lunatic glint shinning brightly in her aqua blue eyes. Sokka, upon discovering that she would not yield to him, sighed and stalked off moodily.

Katara rolled her eyes disdainfully, evidently unaware of Aang's presence a few feet from her, rambling under her breath.

"He shouldn't be the one complaining… took so long, now I won't have time to finish it before I get ready…"

"Get ready for what?"

Katara started, searching frantically for the person who had spoken.

"Oh, it's just you, Aang," she said in relief once she had located him. "What did you say?"

"What do you need to get ready for?" the young Airbender repeated innocently.

Katara's face reddened. "Er… I'm going out tonight," she replied evasively.

"Where?"

Under his intense gaze, Katara shifted uncomfortably. "Well, Jet is taking me out to dinner." She glanced at him to catch his reaction, but was shocked to discover that his face betrayed nothing. He was getting good at this…

"When did this happen?"

"Um… that night at dinner when he asked me for a word."

What was he asking her all these questions for?

For a split second, as Katara continued gazing at her friend, she thought he looked almost torn, as though he was waging war against himself in his mind, but the next moment this look was gone and replaced by his inane smile.

"Okay, have fun!" was all he said before leaving her in the hallway, dumbfounded.

"Katara, if you don't get in here and fix this stupid button right now, there will be a lot more than buttons to fix by the time I'm through with this gown."

Wide-eyed, Katara hurried back into Toph's room to finish what she had started.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

This time, everything would be perfect. It had to be. Tonight was her first "official" date as she called it because Jet was taking her to a fancy restaurant and she was required to dress the part.

So as she dressed and applied her make-up, sweeping the fuzzy brush daintily over her rosy cheeks, she pictured the scene of the events that would unfold that night in a romanticized version in her mind's eye. The setting would be soft and amorous, dimly lit with the golden hued radiance of humming fireflies, whispering encouragingly in the ears of lovers beneath the warm, breezy starlit night sky, and she would feel joyous and at peace, and in a state of pure bliss, she would be fully caught up in the moment and forget all about her inexplicable guilt and everything else she was worried about. It would be the best night of her life. This date would be all she needed to feel that romantic, swooning feeling with Jet again, the feeling she seemed to have lost over the past couple of days and was craving to have back. This night would be everything she wanted and more.

A sudden howling of the wind made Katara's sharp blue eyes travel to the large window curiously and observe the weather. To her partial disappointment, clouds had begun to form across the azure sky, obscuring the sun behind their sinister darkness. However, nothing could dampen her high spirits. Nothing.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

This could not be happening. Not to her. Not Jet.

She had arrived at the restaurant Jet had told her he'd meet her at and waited. And waited. And waited. He never showed up.

At first she thought she was mistaken and had shown up at the wrong restaurant. After all, there were a few restaurants she had passed on her way that looked quite similar to the one she was currently at. That would surely explain why he had never showed up. Convinced with this optimistic line of thinking, she had called over a passing waitress and inquired the name of the restaurant. It was the same one Jet had mentioned to her, the same one he'd promised to meet her at.

Her own snarky waiter had grown exceedingly impatient with her, and finally Katara ordered a drink just so he would get off her case and leave her be while she dealt with much more pressing matters as her heart broke more and more with every passing second. And then she had waited.

At some indefinable point while she was sitting miserably, alone at a table designed for two, the smoldering sun overhead appeared to have burned out; its disappearance was followed closely by the pitter-patter of light rain drops hitting the shingled roof, evolving quickly into the incessant, rapid drumbeats of pouring rain. As Katara numbly reflected on it, the weather matched her mood perfectly.

Katara slowly stirred the remaining ice residing at the bottom of her empty glass with the straw she had used to slurp the beverage down in as unreasonably long a time as possible, doing anything to gain time to wait. But now, with the drink finished a quarter of an hour ago and the last ice cube melting away as she swirled it around, it was time for her to face the truth. Jet had stood her up.

She was too numb to try and create an excuse, any excuse at all he may have to condone himself for ditching her on a date, and quite frankly she didn't even care.

Throwing a coin down on the round little table to pay for her lone beverage, Katara rose dreamlike from her padded chair, all eyes in the restaurant on her, and walked out unprotected into the pouring down rain, the heavy drops of water landing on her face mixing with the salty tears streaming from her eyes.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

Over the course of a few, superfluously extended hours, the storm blew in to the city and drenched everything in sight. The sun was gone – there was no shining ray of hope peeping through the ominous, dark clouds to lighten the damp mood. It would have to be tolerated; the residents had no choice but to abandon their outdoor activities for the day and seek refuge within their homes until the storm passed.

The rain was at its peak when the heavy wooden door slid open and Katara stumbled in, her hair in soaking wet bundles and matted knots, her make-up a mess and running down her face, her beautiful face marred with tears, and Aang instantly felt a wave of sick guilt erupt through his body, horrified and down right ashamed of his actions. What had he done?

The grief-stricken Waterbender swayed dangerously, her feet still planted in the doorway, and Aang instinctively leapt up and caught her in his arms as she fell, sobbing uncontrollably onto his shoulder.

Aang drew her close to him, unable to believe what was going on. What felt the worst was that unwanted feeling of dread sinking through him as he processed his actions and their consequences. This couldn't be happening; he didn't do this… did he? _What have I done?_

Katara, the girl he loved with all his heart, was in a state of despair and hopelessness. Before now, she would never have guessed that it hurt so bad to be stood up, and as much as she willed herself to regain control over herself, she was fully incapable of doing so. The only thing she could do was cry incessantly into Aang's shirt as he patted her awkwardly on the back, hoping to soothe her.

"Aang… oh Aang, he betrayed me!" she finally managed to splutter, clutching to him for dear life.

"What happened, Katara?" Aang murmured gently, dreading the answer.

"Jet… he… he," she choked in her distress. "He stood me up! He never showed up tonight, he left me sitting alone at the restaurant… all the people… why would he do such a thing?" she cried, struggling to string her sentences together in a logical order.

His chest was surely about to explode; his heart was on fire, the white-hot flames eating away at him hungrily from the inside, fed by the searing, infinite mass of guilt born from his inculpative act. He had to tell her the truth, he had to; he was never a mendacious person and there was no way around it. It had to be done.

"Actually Katara, there's something I need to tell you."

Gradually, he eased her off him and set her back on her own feet.

Katara sniffed, a few sparkling tears running down her cheeks. Her downcast blue eyes, full of pain and anguish, held a distrustful look, as though she had picked up on her friend's shady behavior.

"It's about your date tonight." _Deep breath_, he told himself. _You got yourself into this mess; now it's up to you to fix it and get yourself out of it_.

The sapphire eyes he cherished so greatly hardened in cold suspicion. The Airbender winced and dropped his gaze to her neck, staring at it as though it was the object he was addressing as opposed to her.

"Yes, Aang?"

He gulped shakily. "Jet… Jet cancelled," he mumbled in such a hushed voice she couldn't hear him.

"Pardon?"

"Jet, he… um, well, he cancelled."

Aang dared not raise his round gray eyes up to examine her reaction to his cutting words – his heart was thudding hard enough against his chest and his intense trepidation made him fearful of what he would encounter if he dared look up.

Katara was appalled, immobilized in a state of uncomprehending disbelief as Aang's lamenting words washed over her.

"He… he cancelled? What do you mean?"

"I mean that he came up to me today and – and he told me that he couldn't make it to dinner and to – to pass the message on to you as soon as possible."

The Avatar finally looked her straight in the eyes and immediately regretted it – the livid, steely look in her narrowed eyes served to increase his despair tenfold.

"You," she whispered in a deadly serious voice, grasping the situation as she pieced the puzzle together, shocked. "You are the reason I sat alone in a popular restaurant for hours, waiting for someone who was never going to show up?"

In a dazed stupor, Aang nodded very lethargically.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she demanded, the harsh, venomous edge to her tone sending chills down Aang's spine and causing him to retreat several paces.

"I-I," he tried to justify himself weakly, but Katara was absolutely beside herself with rage and beyond any form of reason.

"You didn't tell me Jet cancelled our date? You knew all that time he wasn't going to show up and you let me go anyways? How could you do that to me Aang? What is wrong with you?!" she yelled mutinously. "I sat there looking like a complete idiot in front of loads of rich fancy people for hours, sipping a drink in the tiniest amounts I could to make it last as long as possible so if he showed up it would seem as though I had just gotten there, and the whole time I was waiting for someone you knew had cancelled?" she shouted, advancing on the boy menacingly.

Aang backed away from her, his hands raised in front of his chest protectively, feeling as if his entire world was crashing down in front of him and shattering before his feet. How had he gotten himself into this mess?

"I had a waiter harassing me to order something all night, I sprinted home in the pouring rain, devastated, humiliated, and used, all because you lacked the decency to inform me my date wasn't coming?!"

The fire blazed in her eyes as she glared malevolently at him, jabbing him forcefully in the chest with her forefinger, watching without a trace of remorse as his lower lip quivered and his shining gray eyes shook fearfully. Aang was on the verge of tears, retaining control over himself only by the thinnest silk thread Katara was on track to snap ruthlessly.

"I believed I had been stood up, betrayed by Jet once again, and came home an emotional mess all because you felt like playing the role of an insensitive jerk and selfishly, unfeelingly kept important news that should have been conveyed to me immediately away from me?!"

This time, his eyes really were filled with glistening tears; he was at the breaking point, and yet she mercilessly, recklessly plunged on with her stream of hateful words. She would drive him over the edge; she would make him pay dearly for his deplorable act, for all the pain and humiliation she suffered at his hands.

"I hate you."

With these words, the razor sharp tip of the insidious arrow pierced his heart and Aang crumpled to the floor, devastated by her words and filled to the brim with shame and hate towards himself, unable to believe she what she had just said to him.

Katara looked on to his despair stony faced, feeling absolutely no remorse that she had reduced the poor boy to tears. In fact, she felt angered – he had no right to grieve, he had not gone through everything she had that night. Sparing him one last contemptuous look, the feisty Waterbender turned haughtily on her heel and stalked off, leaving Aang alone to wallow in his misery.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

Thanks to all my readers and reviewers!


	8. Apologies

Okay, so I know I said I wasn't going to have another dream sequence, but I was running out of interesting (at least I hope) ways to introduce each chapter, so I did the real final dream sequence. All of the dreams are supposed to connect in a way and they are all significant, as I'm sure all my brilliant readers know! So I apologize if you hate my dreams. Maybe you'll like this one. I did it in the desert because the sand is a good symbol for what I'm trying to get across here. Anyways, this chapter I am fairly proud of, it mainly prepares the scene for what's to happen at the ball and ties up a few loose ends as well as shows some sibling love .

And I am also SOOOO sorry about the major delay, I was so busy with the end of the school year, where my teachers all panicked and felt they needed to pick up the pace and cram even more information into our heads and made us do a crazy amount of work. Then there were exams, and due to all this, I barely had a moment to myself, let alone time to write. But now school's out and I'm on vacation at the moment, so life's good. Be thankful it's even here today – like I said, I'm away and don't have internet, only my laptop, but luckily I was able to hook up to my grandparents wireless internet for the time being. You were going to have to wait until Saturday. And I think you all should know that tomorrow is my birthday! Yay! I'll be 16 and I'm going for my license soon! So think of this chapter as a birthday gift from me to you… oh wait, since it's MY birthday, maybe I should get a gift! How about some nice reviews? Reviews make my birthday the best day in the world! Haha, anyway thanks to all of those who contributed to the 50+ reviews on this story, you guys are wonderful!

And now the disclaimer: I do not own Avatar. Though if someone wants to surprise me and give it to me for my birthday, I promise season 3 will come out a lot sooner than it will under it's current owners:P

On with the story!

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

_The dry, crisp grains of desert sand dusted the air as the frivolous winds swirled around the sand dunes and disturbed the minute particles resting precariously on their surfaces. The expanse of desert stretched endlessly beyond the crimson horizon and Aang was the only sign of life for miles._

_He wandered aimlessly among the scorching heaps of sand, lost and confused. He was searching for an answer, but was unlucky in his quest, for nothing around him gave him a hint as to why he was suddenly traveling through the desert alone._

_After a time, the Avatar kicked the ground, enraged at his amnesia. He wasn't progressing anywhere – if fact, he strongly suspected he was walking in circles. It infuriated him even more that he didn't even know the question he was seeking an answer to. Suddenly, a wild, desperate shriek resounded throughout the desert._

_Aang sprinted off in the direction he thought the scream was coming from, kicking up sand and dust in his eyes as he ran, not caring in the slightest that now his eyes were stinging painfully and he had to blink rapidly to maintain the ability to see where he was going. He had to help whoever was voicing such an earsplitting scream that was crescendoing with every passing second._

_A figure silhouetted against the sand dunes loomed into his range of vision as he propelled himself forward with his airbending. There was something awfully familiar about that figure… _

"_Katara!" Aang exclaimed, horror-struck at the scene that lay before his eyes. The young Water Tribe girl was waist deep in quicksand, and she was sinking fast._

"_Here, take my hand!" he shouted, keeping his feet planted firmly on the sand and reaching out to her. She glared at his hand icily and turned her head away in a silent refusal to accept his aid. _

"_What's wrong? C'mon Katara, grab my hand so I can pull you out and save you!" Aang stared at her anxiously, incredulously, as he wondered what was going on with her._

"_No."_

_Aang's jaw dropped a foot. "What? Why not?"_

"_I don't need _your_ help," she asserted haughtily, her head still turned defiantly away from him._

"_Katara, please!" he pleaded with her, panicking as she sank a couple more inches._

_Her eyes closed and her mouth set in a rigid line, she folded her arms across her chest. By now, only her upper body remained unclaimed by the sands; she was in up to her elbows. _

"_I'm sorry Katara, I'm sorry, just please let me help you!" Aang cried impotently, hating himself for being unable to help as he witnessed his beloved being swallowed up by the unforgiving sands of the desert._

_Katara glared mutinously at him. "I hate you, Aang. This is all your fault."_

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

The cozy cotton sheets were jerked violently off as Aang woke up in a frenzy and flew up into a rigid upright position, breathing heavily as he slowly came to understand his surroundings and gather that everything he had just experienced had been a mere dream and far from real life.

Faintly relieved but still somewhat shaken and not altogether reassured, Aang allowed himself to fall back upon his bed, massaging his temples. He doubted he would fall back asleep after that nightmare, though, judging by the darkness enveloping him, it was the middle of the night. Ever since Aang made his calamitous mistake of withholding Jet's message, Katara had been giving him the cold shoulder, refusing to utter a single word to him or in his presence, and, consequentially, she had ceased to console him after his nightmares. He genuinely longed for her presence in the night, the feeling of her arms wrapped around his body, but that was obviously not going to happen anytime soon, most likely not at all. Perhaps it was for the best – he needed to toughen up and deal with problems on his own.

Even so, it would be nice if he could at least repair their friendship, no matter how unstable it would be, and get her to talk and behave normally around him again. However, Aang found himself to be incompetent when it came to thinking up something that would serve to reconcile their friendship. He instead wasted his time and energy berating himself for his heartless act, beating himself up inside whenever it popped into his mind accompanied by an image of a distraught Katara sobbing helplessly on his shoulder. What had been going on in his brain when he formulated his plan to allow Katara to head out to a date where her date would not be present? Hadn't he foreseen how much that would hurt her? Didn't he think of the consequences of his reckless actions? Well, he was certainly paying dearly for them now, and he was going to have to deal with it.

For whatever reason, when Jet presented him with information to be passed as quickly as possible to Katara, the Avatar felt as though he had been handed the key he had been searching for for so long without a fight. This was the key to unlock his desires, the solution to his romantic difficulties. His messed up brain created a (at the time) brilliant plan to win Katara's heart – he would keep the information to himself, and when Katara arrived home later that night after having been betrayed by Jet, hating him for life and not wanting to see his ugly speckled mug again, Aang would be there to console her and Jet would be permanently eliminated from the picture. It was amazing how much a single plan could backfire and leave such a devastating mess in its place. Now, as opposed to Katara hating Jet as Aang had expected, she hated _him_, the complete opposite of how he felt for her and desired her to feel about him.

Aang had been so caught up in getting revenge on Jet and snatching Katara away from his clutches beneath his very nose that he had forgotten to take Katara's feelings into consideration and how she would like being played with like this, a costly error on Aang's part. That was what he hated himself the most for – how he had hurt Katara.

A tormented groan escaped his throat as he rolled over and swung his legs out of bed. Regardless of whether he could convince the beautiful Waterbender to talk to him again (and he wouldn't blame her if she refused – the sin he committed was unforgivable), he at least wanted to express his sorrow and regret by apologizing.

Tiptoeing down the hall, Aang gently cracked her door open and slipped inside. Her back was facing him, her long, silky, smooth tresses of dark hair cascading softly down her back, and this image gave Aang the impression that Katara was fast asleep.

"What do you want?"

Her tone was harsh, shrill, and demanding. Aang gulped but didn't back down. No matter what the cost or outcome, he was fiercely determined to speak his mind.

"I… I had a nightmare." _What_? Where had _that_ come from? That was certainly far from what he had planned on saying.

"So?" she sneered indifferently, sounding so unlike the Katara he knew and loved.

"I wanted to tell you about it," he mumbled bashfully. The room fell quiet as Aang waited for a response and Katara maintained a stony silence. Aang knew she was listening, so he plunged on.

"I was in the middle of the desert. I was lost and had no idea what I was supposed to be doing. The only thing I knew was that I was searching for an answer to something. I felt so hopeless and confused, wandering among the scorching sand dunes, when I heard a scream. Your scream," he clarified.

The girl on the other side of the room made no reply, though Aang could have sworn she lifted her head off the pillow a fraction of an inch in order to hear him better.

"I ran until I found you," he continued meekly, "and you were sinking fast in quicksand. I panicked. I held out my hand and instructed you to grab hold so I could pull you out. But you refused. I begged and pleaded with you, but you remained immovable. The last thing you said before you were sucked up was that you hated me and blamed me for… for…"

Aang swallowed, decided to get everything off his chest at once.

"And that's not all. All of the other nightmares I've had recently – they've all involved you getting hurt by someone or something, someone I've discovered to be Jet. Every time I would try to help you and every time I would fail. You got hurt every time. And it was always my fault."

Finally he had told her what she had been begging him to tell her for a long time now, but he wasn't sure if this was the right time or place to be revealing everything. Instinct gave him a slightly reassuring feeling that it was and advised him to wait for her to make the next move.

With a shuffling noise accompanied with the gently rustling of blankets, Katara shifted in her bed so she could see him, and the moonlight fluttering across her showed a hollow, deadened look in her eyes and a gaunt and pale face. Aang's heart instantly melted with emotion and he spit out the final thing he needed to tell her.

"I'm so, so sorry, Katara! I don't know what came over me, but I promise you it'll never, ever happen again. I didn't mean to hurt you, I don't want to hurt you, ever, you mean so much to me and the last thing I ever want is to see you suffer," he cried, tears brimming in his round eyes.

Katara regarded him steadily, blinking lethargically, taking her time in responding. At least, she spoke up.

"Why did you do it, Aang?" Her voice was scratchy and cracked faintly from the minimal use it had been receiving over the past few days.

Aang froze, wide-eyed. He had not anticipated this; he had expected her to simply accept his apology and leave it at that. Apparently this was not the case.

"Er, well," faltered Aang as she waited, arms and legs folded expectantly. His brain worked furiously to come up with a solution for his dilemma, but, upon finding none, he resigned himself to telling the truth. "I was… jealous."

He tried not to notice as Katara's face registered shock, as though that had not been remotely close to any of the theories she had come up with concerning the matter.

"…and I was afraid for you. I'm afraid of your relationship with Jet."

This last statement puzzled Katara to an even greater extent. She furrowed her eyebrows, trying to discern his meaning. As she continued to look bewildered, Aang sighed exasperatedly.

"I'm afraid he'll hurt you, Katara. He's hurt you once before – what's to stop him from doing it again? Don't you get it? The meaning and reason behind my nightmares is you – you getting hurt and me being unable to help. As your relationship progresses with him, I grow more fearful that my dreams will become a reality. And so, in order to protect you from Jet, I purposefully 'forgot' to tell you he cancelled, thus breaking the relationship between you guys up – if he stood you up, you'd never want to date him again, right? But in doing so, I stupidly didn't see that by 'saving' you from Jet, I was doing the thing I feared most – hurting you. I wish I could go back in time and stop this from ever happening, but I can't, so all I can do is say I'm sorry over and over again, hoping that someday you can find it in your heart to be my friend again. Because you are the best friend I have, Katara, and I'd do anything for you. My life is nothing without you by my side."

At last, at long last, a small smile broke out over Katara's face. Aang's sincerity rang true throughout his actions and words, and it caused her to lighten up a great deal.

"I forgive you, Aang," said Katara in a voice barely above a whisper. Aang's whole face lit up as he beamed happily at her.

Katara motioned for him to join her on the bed and she wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug.

"Now do you think you'll be able to get to sleep?" she asked kindly.

"Yeah," Aang murmured into her hair, inhaling her scent deeply.

She released him and lay back down on her pillows. Aang got up to leave.

"Wait, Aang," she called suddenly. Aang paused in the doorway. "Thank you for apologizing, and especially for telling me about your nightmares. It means a lot to me."

Aang nodded. "Goodnight," he whispered.

"Goodnight," Katara replied, her eyelids drooping as she fell into a heavy slumber.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

One day. The ball was one day away. Sokka was growing increasingly nervous as the date drew nearer, and not for only one reason. First off, he was going with Toph, and he had never done anything like taking her on some sort of date before. He was unsure of how she would react; she wasn't exactly the girly type and he didn't know how she would expect to be treated. Should he be a gentleman and hold doors open for her or should he just act like his normal, sarcastic self? Toph wasn't the only thing on his mind. Sokka was a total mess, completely and utterly confused. The more "romantically involved" he got with Toph, the further this confusion went. As he was with her, he couldn't help himself from thinking and dwelling on the other ladies in his life. What about Yue, the gorgeous moon spirit who had been his first love? What about Suki, the warrior he thought he was currently in a relationship with? Where did Toph fit in the picture?

Sokka groaned, tearing at his hair in the process. What was a guy to do? He harbored strong feelings for the three afore girls mentioned, but how did he choose? He couldn't have three girlfriends at once; which did he choose to be official with?

His first thought was Yue. She was the only one of those girls that he actually loved. But she was out of the picture, seeing as she no longer belonged to the mortal world. He sighed. She was too beautiful for it anyway. He was struggling to get over her, though he tried hard. It had been so long ago, and yet it still hurt. He had loved her innocent, caring personality and her politeness and loyalty and strong devotion to her people. In his eyes, she was perfect, and he loved everything about her. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. Yes, she was his first choice.

But reality reminded him that this was impossible. Yue was gone… forever. Sokka had to move on and find someone else, a new love. And even when, when he was older, he gave his heart to this person, Sokka knew he would always hold Yue in a special part of his heart.

So that left Toph and Suki. Suki was the girl who taught him a lesson in life and punctured his overly inflated ego by embarrassing him and exposing him as fake in front of a group of onlookers. Sure, the experience of being defeated in combat by a girl within the time span of thirty seconds had been humbling, but Suki earned a lot of respect that day and Sokka backed down from his traditional men-fight-and-women-cook perspective of life.

Suki was strong and fiercely independent. Toph carried those traits as well, but Suki was different from Toph in the way she acted around him. Suki liked to flirt. Toph wouldn't be caught dead doing something as girly as _flirting_. However, Sokka had to admit that he quite enjoyed the flirtatious side of Suki (seeing as how he flirted a lot himself). He appreciated the girly side to Suki, and he really, really liked her.

Toph was an entirely different story. Though both girls shared the tough, kick-butt warrior traits, they both had totally different personalities. Suki was defiant and had a rather hot temper at times, but she was kind and gentle as well, and, as Sokka found out, a big flirt. She enjoyed teasing him and getting inside his head, psychologically affecting him with her words. Toph was straightforward and had a blunt, in-your-face personality. She was stubborn. And as Sokka mused on it, he knew he wouldn't have it any other way. Her stubbornness was a trait he liked.

But still! How did he know which girl he liked better? He had kissed Yue and Suki, and it had been amazing every time. He was sure Suki considered them to be "involved", but were they? And how close was "involved" considered to be? Though he hid it, in a way he felt guilty that he was betraying Suki by going to the ball with Toph. But was his relationship with Suki official? Everything had been unspoken and he hadn't seen her since their kiss at the Serpent's Pass. He was so confused.

And where did Toph stand on the position of more-than-friends-feelings? Did she really like Sokka like that or were they just going to the ball as friends? How did he, Sokka, feel about her? Did _he_ like her that way?

"Sokka?"

Sokka looked up from his hands and found his sister studying him from the other side of the living room.

"Hey Sis," he greeted her, his tone morose. "What've you been doing?"

"Nothing much," Katara replied, joining him across the table. "What are you doing here all by yourself?" she questioned curiously.

"Thinking," he mumbled, averting his eyes.

"About what?"

He turned his gaze back to her, faintly irritated. "Why do you care?"

Katara raised her arms up in surrender, taken aback by his sudden harshness. "Calm down, Sokka, I was just wondering if there was anything I could help you with. I am your sister and I care about you."

Sokka softened. "Sorry," he muttered, ashamed of himself.

"That's okay," Katara reassured him. "So… is there anything I can help you with? You seem a bit… troubled."

Sokka pondered whether or not he should tell his sister about his situation. "I guess you could say I'm having girl trouble."

"You care to elaborate on that?" pressed Katara.

Sokka arched an eyebrow at her peculiar behavior. Since when was she such an expert at solving the problems of the heart?

"Er… well, it's just… you know-"

"You feel guilty about taking Toph to the ball, and, in doing so, you fear you may develop more-than-friends feelings for her because of that certain someone you left after a kiss in the Serpent's Pass?" Katara said in one breath, a sly grin adorning her face. Her brother's jaw dropped as he gaped at her.

"How-how did you know?" he demanded, flushing bright red when he realized this question could be referring to her knowledge of the kiss as well as to her guessing about his problem. She hadn't been… _watching_ him, had she? Talk about awkward…

"It's a girl thing." She paused and gave him a look that told him quite clearly that she had seen every bit of his intimate moment with Suki. He inwardly groaned. "Also, you seem to be getting more anxious and confused looking the closer the ball comes and you've been behaving strangely around Toph – it doesn't take much to put two and two together."

The warrior grumbled. "Well yeah, that's basically it. But there's one more thing." Sokka hesitated. "Do you remember Princess Yue?"

The atmosphere around the pair tensed and Katara sat up straighter, her demeanor dropping it carefree aloofness and adopting a sorrowful seriousness and crispness.

"Of course I do," Katara responded carefully. "How could I forget her?"

Sokka shrugged his shoulders halfheartedly. "I dunno. I guess I was just wondering if it's possible to love someone after death."

"It certainly is," she said softly. "I still love mom-"

"That wasn't what I meant," Sokka interrupted quietly. "I mean, is it possible to still be _in_ love with someone, even after they're gone?" A plaintive pang vibrated through Sokka's heart, but he ignored it.

Katara could feel her brother's pain as clearly as though it was her own. "Oh, Sokka," she whispered, placing a comforting hand over his. Sokka wished she wouldn't. The gesture stirred up emotions he didn't want to feel and fought against off and on since Yue's death. His azure blue eyes began to water and he blinked and looked away, silently wishing Katara would do the same.

When Sokka found his voice, he croaked, "You still haven't answered my question."

"I know," responded Katara. "Maybe it's because I'm still searching for the answer myself.

Her brother looked at her quizzically. "What do you mean?"

"Mom," she said in a strangled whisper. "I love her so much, even though she's gone, and sometimes I wonder if that's even possible. I mean, she's dead, what's there to love? Her memory? Does that even count? I loved her when she was alive. Do I still hold that love for her in my heart? But then I think about it. Love is an emotion, something you feel inside. Sure, our physical expressions of love may be gone – hugging, goodnight kisses, etcetera – but that emotion stays in our hearts forever. We never stop loving. So yes, Sokka, it is possible to love someone after death. As for being _in_ love with someone… I'm pretty sure the same rules apply. I mean, I wouldn't know, but why wouldn't they? The two types of love aren't as different as you think."

At long last a smile broke out across Sokka's gloomy features. "Thanks, little sister," he said, ruffling her hair. She swatted at his hand playfully, beaming as well. "There is still one little problem, though," Sokka continued, his smile fading as he turned serious again.

Katara's happy grin faded as well, and she fixed her eyes on him, urging him to proceed.

Sokka heaved a sigh and ran his fingers through his hair distractedly.

"To bring us back where we were a few minutes ago, what about Suki? I'm going to the ball with Toph – I kissed Suki," here Sokka blushed again, "and I feel we have some sort of relationship going on. Is it considered cheating on Suki if I go with Toph? I mean, what do I do?" He looked helplessly to his sister.

Katara thought to herself for a moment before responding. "Sokka, that's something you need to work out on your own. You need to decide where you stand with both Toph and Suki, and then, if it comes to this, choose who you like best. Spend time with both of them. Your heart will show you the way. Although it may be hard to spend time with Suki. We have no clue where she is," she added as an afterthought.

Sokka rolled his eyes at this comment and stood up to embrace his little sister. "Thanks, sis," he whispered gratefully in her ear. "I love you."

"I love you too, Sokka," she whispered back, hugging him tightly.

A moment later, the sound of someone rapping their knuckles against the wooden door broke them apart. Katara strode over and slid it open, her face showing surprise as she discovered who was standing on the threshold of the house.

"Jet?"

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

Okay everyone, thanks for reading! See you in chapter 9! Which I hope to get out a lot quicker than this chapter, but I'm still fairly busy – I have to read tons of books for school and the entire Harry Potter series before the last book comes out and then I have to read that book! So… much… reading…

Was anyone else disappointed with Pirates of the Caribbean 3? Poor Will! Why must the good die young? Wah…


	9. Preparations

**WARNING!** This chapter contains huge doses of Jetara. If you are allergic to Jetara, I highly recommend turning back now.

What's this? An update not two weeks after the previous one? It's a miracle! I told you guys the wait wouldn't be long! I'm so proud of myself. But don't expect it again. The main reason this is out so soon is because I was away for a week and had nothing to do. Anyways, this story is almost over, just to give you guys a heads up. 12 chapters total. That means only three more chapters! Hooray! As much fun as this story has been to write, I'll be glad (and sad) when it's over.

Well, my author notes will be at the bottom. Enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

"What are you doing here?" asked Katara, somewhat icily. Jet picked up on this and frowned.

"Staying true to my promise, of course. After this hectic week I'm finally free and I thought I could make up that date with you tonight." Jet swept his hair back out of his eyes and Katara couldn't help herself from noticing how undeniably attractive he was.

Placing her right hand on Jet's chest, she pushed him gently outside on the porch, called over her shoulder, "Be back later, Sokka", and closed the door with her free hand.

They strolled a ways in an awkward silence.

"So, how about that date?" said Jet, attempting to get a conversation going. Katara didn't respond and Jet sensed something was wrong. "Hey Katara, something up?" But she was gone, having sprinted ahead of him to claim a bench near a fountain in the middle of the park their feet had carried them to.

Jet sat down beside her and repeated his question. "What's wrong?"

Katara faced him, her dark hair and skin shimmering in the rays of sunlight shining over her, her finely shaped eyes dead serious.

"Jet, why weren't you at our date on Monday?"

Jet stared. "What do you mean? I gave a message concerning the date to Aang to pass to you!"

Katara took a deep breath. "Aang didn't give me that message, Jet." And she told him the whole story, everything from her waiting alone at the restaurant to Aang's confession and relaying of the message to her at last. By the time she finished, Jet was speechless.

"He didn't tell you?" he raged. "I told him that was extremely important! Why would Aang do something like that?"

Katara shrugged, not wanting to go into the matter with him. She didn't know how he would react.

"Oh Katara, I'm so sorry," said Jet, affectionately wrapping his arms around her and pulling her closer against his body. To his great surprise, she squirmed and wriggled free from his grasp.

"What?"

"It's just…" Katara turned away.

Jet seemed to understand the meaning behind her odd behavior.

"You're mad at me, aren't you?"

"Well, no… not _really_," she mumbled.

"What do you mean, not _really_?" Jet prompted tersely.

Katara snapped. "Nothing, Jet!" she snarled testily, swinging around to face him. "I just think that you could have made a bit more of an effort to ensure I received your message. Happy?"

Jet gaped at her, stunned. Then he turned angry as well. "I was in a hurry!" he huffed. "It was last minute! I'm sorry your friends don't care enough for you to deliver my message!" The second this left Jet's mouth, he regretted it. The stung look on his girlfriend's face made him feel like dirt. She furiously stood up to leave.

"Katara, wait," he backtracked in the blink of an eye, grabbing her hand to stop her. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that, it was just my big mouth speaking in the heat of the moment. I'm sorry you had to go through the experience of being stood up. You don't deserve that. Nobody deserves that. Please give me another chance." He stared hopefully into her deep blue eyes.

She glared down coldly at him. "What was so important that you had to ditch me?"

Jet winced at the harshness in her tone but responded normally. "It was the Meesangs. They needed my help with the ball. Did you ever wonder why you were invited to a ball hosted by people you don't know? It's because of me. I know the Meesangs personally and they gave me permission to invite whoever I liked, so I sent you guys invitations, thinking you'd like to come. When they requested my help, there was no way I could refuse – they've done a lot for me, helped me out of some tight spots. I had to do it," he finished gently.

"Okay," Katara conceded. "And as for the experience of being stood up… well, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger, right?" she laughed, trying to make a joke out of the ordeal as she allowed herself to be pulled back to Jet's firm chest, his strong arms around her waist. They stayed like that comfortably for a while until Katara voiced that she should probably get home so Sokka didn't worry.

"All right," he said, rising and helping Katara to her feet. "See you tonight? I'll pick you up at eight." He bent down to kiss her but Katara moved her head to the side so that the kiss landed on her cheek.

"Yes, tonight." She stared hard at him. "You are sure you're going to be there, right?" And on that note she walked off, leaving Jet cursing his stupidity at having yelled at her, for she clearly didn't completely forgive him.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

_That could have gone better_, Katara remarked silently as she dragged herself home. _Well, at least he knows the whole story now – or at least most of it_, she added as she recalled her not answering one of Jet's questions.

_Why?_ It was the same question that still puzzled her, despite the fact she had the answer. When Jet asked why Aang didn't relay the message to her, she was reminded of part of Aang's answer to that very question, the part he failed to go into detail about. Jealousy. He said he was jealous. Of what was he jealous? Why was he jealous? He didn't mention anything about either of these details; instead, he talked a lot about being afraid of Katara and Jet's relationship. That was all. So what did he mean by saying he was jealous?

It came down to two logical options, Katara decided. The first was that general you-have-something-I-don't-and-I-want-it type of jealousy. Aang could have been saying that he was jealous Katara had a boyfriend (wait, were they boyfriend and girlfriend?) while he had no one. This did make sense, seeing as Aang was quite glum and moody when he discovered he had no one to take to the ball, but it didn't seem to fit Aang's character and personality. Aang had never been one to get jealous over petty things like that; in fact, Katara couldn't recall a time when he was jealous over anything.

The second option was (and Katara hesitated to think this, terrified to believe it might be true) that Aang was jealous Katara was taken by Jet because _he_ wanted to date her.

As this thought ran through her mind, the barrette she was setting in her hair slipped and the sharp edge sliced her thumb.

"Ow!" she exclaimed, squeezing her thumb and watching the blood seep out. Yanking her handkerchief off the dresser, she wound it securely around her thumb to stem the bleeding and prevent it from getting onto her clothing.

_Okay Katara, stop thinking for once and actually focus on what you're doing_. Carefully, she snatched up the hair accessory again and clipped it in neatly. Then she pulled a few tendrils of hair down to frame her face. She stepped back to admire herself in the full-length mirror. She wore a simple date dress for the occasion and was adorned in several clanging bracelets and chandelier earrings.

_I suppose my date will be here soon_… her thought trailed off. Katara no longer wanted to feel mad at Jet. She wanted things to go back to the way they used to be, when she was completely smitten with him. She didn't feel that way around him anymore. Actually, she'd had no desire to interact with him since the day he supposedly stood her up, even though prior to that incident she been reluctant to leave his presence for a mere five minutes. It agitated Katara to acknowledge it, but she felt as though she was slipping away from Jet and his charms, as though she was losing interest in him.

No… that couldn't be true! Desperately, Katara tried to conjure up an image of Jet in her mind. There he was… but he didn't seem as handsome as he once did, as strong, as charming…

_Knock, knock, knock._

Jet had arrived. The Waterbender scurried over to the door, checked how she looked in the mirror one last time, took a deep breath, and opened the door.

Jet stood patiently in the doorway, clean and handsome in his best outfit, a bouquet of assorted flowers in his hands.

"You look amazing," he commented lightly, kissing her cheek and pressing the flowers into her hands. "For you."

Katara smiled graciously, blushing. "Thank you, Jet. They're lovely." _See, that wasn't so hard_. Katara had decided to act as though nothing had gone on between them that afternoon. She was going to act completely normal in Jet's company and revive those feelings of profound attachment she used to feel for him.

"Are you ready?" Jet's cool, suave voice brought Katara back to her senses. She smiled again and placed her hand in his, intertwining their fingers as they walked along the moonlit path together.

After about ten minutes of walking, during which the couple spoke nothing to the other, they arrived at a fancy little restaurant. Thankfully, on Katara's part, it was not the same restaurant from Monday night. Jet apparently had enough common sense not to bring her back there again.

Once inside, a perky waitress showed them to a two-person table in a secluded corner, where they had a bit of privacy, away from the other customers. She placed two menus on the round table and requested what they would like for drinks.

"Water is fine," said Katara.

"Same here," Jet said.

"All right, I'll be right back with those." The waitress then bounced off to greet a new couple that had just arrived.

Jet lifted the menus off the table, and, handing one over to his date, scanned the foods listed.

Shortly after, the waitress sidled up to them, balancing two ice waters with lemon wedges jammed on the sides of the glasses. She set them neatly before the couple, whipped out a notebook, and pulled a pen from behind her ear.

"Y'all ready to order?" she asked them politely.

Jet glanced up at Katara for her consent, and she gave a tiny nod of the head.

"Okay, I'll take the vegetable and shrimp noodle dish with the toasted bread on the side," Jet told her, watching as she jotted it quickly down on the pad. The waitress looked to Katara expectantly.

"And for you, hon?"

"Um, I'll have the fish with a baked potato and a small salad," she read off the menu.

The waitress scribbled her order down as well and picked up their menus. "I'll put these orders in right away," she said cheerfully, and she left them alone.

A strained silence fell between Jet and Katara. Katara picked up the lemon with two fingers and squeezed it into her drink before placing it delicately back on the ridge. She kept her eyes downcast, conscious of Jet's dark brown eyes on her.

"So, um," Katara began, finally unable to take it any longer as the stillness stretched on. "How's work?"

Jet grabbed on to the topic gratefully, glad to have something to talk about at last. "Work's great, excluding the annoying girls that bother me almost every night I'm working." Jet shot her a lopsided grin. "And the worst part is, they'll sit there through my entire shift and order only one measly drink, and then come up with infinitely stupid excuses to call me over every five minutes. 'There aren't enough ice cubes in my water' or 'This lemon isn't sour enough – can you bring me a new one please?'" Jet mimicked in an obnoxious, high-pitched voice, batting his eyelashes flirtatiously. Katara giggled.

"Wow Jet, it really seems as though you've got your work cut out for you. It must be _so_ hard to add some more ice to a water," Katara teased, glad that the tension between them had vanished.

"Mm, I know," Jet murmured distractedly. He squinted at a point directly over Katara's left shoulder. "Oh no," he exclaimed, rapidly snatching up the dessert menu and attempting to hide behind it. "Speak of the devil."

"Huh?" said Katara in confusion, looking over her shoulder. All that was behind her was the entryway where people waited to be seated. Standing there was a tall, skinny girl with shoulder length curly brown hair who was staring over at them with narrowed eyes. "Do you know her, Jet?"

"Yes!" Jet whispered frantically. "She's one of the -"

"Hello, Jet," came an icy voice behind Katara. Katara spun around to face the speaker.

"Hey," Jet replied stiffly, trying to act nonchalant. "What are you doing here?"

"I might ask you the same question," the girl breathed smoothly, glowering at Katara. Katara shivered. A sense of foreboding hung around in the air and it made the Waterbender uneasy.

"I'm here on a date with my girlfriend, Katara," Jet said, fixing his gaze directly upon the girl, as if daring her to say something about it. "Katara, this is Jinai. Jinai, this is Katara," Jet introduced them.

Katara smiled warmly. "Hello Jinai, nice to meet you. Are you a friend of Jet's?"

Ignoring her, Jinai shifted so she was facing Jet and blocking Katara, glaring even more hatefully. Just as Jet opened his mouth to speak, their waitress arrived with the food.

"Excuse me, hon," the waitress said, moving Jinai aside to place the food on the table.

"See you around, Jinai," Jet said pointedly, waving goodbye.

Jinai scowled. "Likewise." She turned moodily on her heel and stormed off.

Katara and Jet thanked the buoyant waitress and dug in to the steaming hot food before them.

After a few minutes of eating, Katara cleared her throat and spoke.

"Who _was_ that?"

Holding up his finger to indicate he would respond in a moment, Jet swallowed a large chunk of bread. "That was one of the girls from hell I told you about. And let me tell you, she is the deadliest. She actually had the nerve to fake trip and land on me the first day we met." Jet shook his head. "She's seriously deranged, in my opinion. Very forward. She probably thinks I like her or something." He took another bite of bread and chewed thoughtfully. "Like that'll ever happen. I already have my dream girl, and that's you." His cheeks became tinged with pink as he said this. _Where did that come from? Talk about sappy… _In his embarrassment, Jet shoved the last of the bread into his mouth and proceeded to choke on it.

Katara bit her lip, leaned over, and kissed him sweetly on the cheek.

"You're so sweet," she cooed. Smiling, Jet stroked her cheek with his hand. He looked down at her plate and discovered that over half of the food remained.

"Katara, eat. You've barely touched you're food."

"I'm not hungry."

"Yes, you are. Here, I'll show you." Jet speared a piece of fish on his fork and brought it to up to her mouth.

"But I'm full!" she protested, laughing and pushing the food away.

But Jet wasn't listening; instead, he took advantage of her open mouth to stuff the food in. Katara made a muffled "oomph!" of surprise and swallowed.

"Jet!" she said reprovingly, coughing. "Don't -"

She was cut off again as Jet forced another piece of fish down her throat.

"Mmkay, mmkay, jud dop it!" Katara spluttered, mouth full of fish. She swallowed again and reached for her water. "I'll eat it, all right? Just don't do that again!"

Jet pouted. "What if I do it nicely?"

"What do you mean, 'nicely'?"

"Like this." Tenderly, Jet coaxed Katara's mouth open as he started to feed her.

Katara closed her eyes and relaxed. Jet didn't stop until the entire plate was clean. When she no longer felt Jet's fork intruding in her mouth, Katara's eyes snapped open and she observed the plate, a smile playing about her lips. "Satisfied?"

Smirking, Jet shook his head, his eyes locked with Katara's. "Almost," he whispered. He signaled to the waitress. "Can we get the bill, please?"

A moment later their waitress was laying a little black book on the table. "How were your meals?"

"Excellent," said Katara pleasantly.

"Yeah, very good," Jet added.

The waitress smiled. "I'm glad to hear it. You can pay up front. Have a nice night." She winked and disappeared.

Katara's hand was reaching for her purse when Jet stopped it.

"I'll pay," he said gently.

"What? No, of course not. I have money."

"No, really Katara," Jet insisted tenaciously. "I'll pay." He stared unyieldingly at her. "Okay?"

Sighing, Katara agreed. They left a generous tip and headed over to the register.

"Let's go for a walk," Jet murmured in her ear after they paid, holding her hand and leading her away.

The pair strolled serenely through the tranquil, starless evening. A cool nighttime breeze wafted through their hair and tickled their faces. The only sound that reached their ears was the ghostly whisper of the wind, accompanied by the occasional eerie hoot of a tawny owl in the distance. The moon was shinning bright and full ahead of them, its glow even more vibrant with the absence of clouds and stars.

They arrived at the park and sat on the same bench as earlier, right in front of the exquisite fountain. Katara gazed at the fountain, illuminated by the torches surrounding it, and followed the trail of water trickling over the various statues with her eyes, listening to the steady, soothing dripping.

"Jet, this has been a really wonderful night. Thank you."

Jet scooted closer to her and cupped her cheeks in his hands, moving her head slightly to face his own. They leaned closer together and stopped with their noses barely touching.

"You're welcome." His hot breath on her cheek sent shivers down her spine. Jet closed the gap between them and placed his lips possessively over hers, kissing her passionately.

Inside, Katara panicked. _He's kissing me and he's my boyfriend, so why does it feel so wrong?_

Carefully, Katara eased Jet off her. A look of disappointment and perplexity flashed across Jet's face.

"What's wrong?"

When her breathing had slowed down, Katara said, averting her eyes, "I don't think I'm ready for that, Jet."

Jet's face bore an incredulous expression. "Why not? It's been -" Jet counted on his fingers "- almost three weeks since we started going out!"

Katara's eyes flashed dangerously. "I said I wasn't ready. Isn't that good enough an answer for you?"

Jet put his hands up to pacify her. "Sorry, sorry. I was just wondering…"

Katara softened. "I know, Jet," she consoled him. "I'm sorry. But please, could we wait a while?" She turned her eyes up to him pleadingly. Jet took one look into those sweet, large orbs and agreed.

"Okay," he said grudgingly. "We'll wait until you're ready." Smiling supportively to show he wasn't mad, he pulled her down on to his lap and held her close. Katara rested her head on his chest, gazing up sleepily at the dark night sky as she thought.

Why hadn't she felt that special spark while Jet was kissing her? Instead of feeling wonderful and happy like she should, she felt horrible. Why had it felt so wrong? It shouldn't have felt like that at all. It should have felt –

"…better get you home before Sokka hits me over the head with his boomerang," Katara heard Jet say. They laughed and Katara allowed herself to be escorted home.

"Goodnight, Jet," Katara said once she was at the door to her house. "Thank you again for taking me out tonight."

"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself," said Jet softly. "Goodnight, Katara." He kissed her on the cheek, saw her inside, and walked home.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

The morning of the ball, Katara woke early to start the preparations of the day. After waking a disgruntled Toph from what was apparently a very deep sleep, Katara set off to the big mirror in the bathroom and began rolling her hair in curlers. Not too much later, Toph joined her, rubbing her eyes tiredly.

"Why are we up so early, Katara?" Toph asked blearily, plopping down on a cushion. "The ball doesn't star until five o' clock at _night_, not in the _morning_."

"We have lots to do, Toph!" Katara snapped. "I can't believe we didn't start earlier. Be grateful I let you sleep in this late."

"Late?" Toph grumbled in amusement. "You call this late?"

"Be quiet for a second. I need to decide what to do with your hair for tonight."

"What? Why? My hair is fine as it is, I don't want you to change it," huffed Toph, scowling grouchily.

"Too bad. You want to look nice for Sokka, don't you?" A satisfied smirk on her lips as she saw Toph's reaction, Katara turned back to setting the curlers in her hair.

"Aw, shut-up, Katara!" Toph yelled. However, Katara couldn't help noticing that the Earthbender didn't raise any more objections to getting ready for the ball.

Around noontime, Katara and Toph headed into the kitchen to make lunch. A periwinkle blue scarf was wrapped around Katara's head, hiding every strand of her brown hair. Toph's hair was, surprisingly, down. Katara felt that Toph needed to let her hair "relax" a bit before she did anything to it.

"Boys, lunch!" Katara called as they entered the living room with a platter of food. She sat it down on the table and Sokka dashed wildly into the room, Aang tagging along behind him.

"About time!" Sokka muttered, grabbing a sandwich. "I thought I was going to -"

He caught sight of Katara's head out of the corner of his eye and burst into hysterical laughter.

"What?" Katara demanded hotly.

"What happened to your hair?" Sokka choked. "Did you decide to go bald like Aang?"

Katara rolled her eyes contemptuously at the same time Aang shouted, "Hey!"

"Nothing happened to it. I'm just getting ready for the ball, as anyone with half a brain could figure out, but now that I think about it, you were born without one of those, so…"

As a response, Sokka made a series of muffled noises. When Katara glared at him in cold disgust, he swallowed his bite of sandwich and said, "I don't understand why it takes a whole day for you to get ready."

Katara shook her head sadly. "I don't expect you to. Come, Toph."

And with that the girls disappeared into the bowels of the house.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

"Stop squirming and hold still!"

"Ouch Katara, you poked with in the eye with that stupid brush!"

"Well, that wouldn't've happened if you hadn't blinked and then bumped me!"

"C'mon, it must be done by now, you've been at it for hours and it's almost time to go. The boys are going to get mad for having to wait so long."

"I don't care, we're not leaving until everything is perfect."

It was nearing five o' clock, the start of the party, and Katara and Toph were putting on the finishing touches. Katara exchanged the mascara brush in her hand for the blush one and swept it across Toph's cheeks one final time before stepping back to take in Toph's whole image.

"Toph, you look beautiful. And I mean it. Sokka won't be able to take his eyes of you."

The younger girl smiled a little. "If you say so, Katara."

"Of course I say so," Katara replied briskly, checking the back of her hair in the mirror. "I want you to say it.

"Say what?" questioned Toph, bewildered.

"Say 'I am beautiful.'"

"No way!" Toph huffed. "I'm not three years old!"

"Say it," Katara commanded.

"Why?"

"Because you've never said it before, and although you are a very secure and self-confident person, I think it would do you good."

"…"

"Toph?"

"If you girls aren't out here in five seconds, we're leaving without you and giving your invitations to some other girls!" Sokka thundered from the door as he began counting loudly.

"Ugh, never mind, let's go Toph," muttered Katara disgustedly, exiting the bathroom at last.

As she left, Toph whispered, "I am beautiful."

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

Waiting. There are many things that people do when they are waiting, as Aang discovered. Someone might take the Sokka approach to waiting – also known as the pace, whine, complain, and make a complete fool of yourself approach. Others could take the Aang approach to waiting – the pensive, inattentive, and glazed over eyes version. Use the time to think, to draw into one's mind and ponder how to find solutions to problems in life.

Aang was currently thinking about Katara and Jet's date the previous night. Katara had come home a million times brighter than she had the first "date" she went on. And though it warmed Aang's heart to see Katara so cheerful, it tore him apart at the same time because his love was with another, and being with that person was the source of her happiness. _He_ wanted to be the source of the Waterbender's happiness, not Jet.

Even though he had apologized and Katara had gone back to being friends with him again, she wasn't exactly the same person she used to be with around him. First off, she rarely spent time alone with him; Toph or Sokka was usually accompanying them for one reason or another. Second, she was still acting rather cold and indifferent towards him, and there was always tension between them. Whenever Aang confronted her about her constricted and un-Katara-ish behavior, she denied it, put on a cheery face, and changed the subject. The only thing Aang could do was accept that Katara had become reserved with him and hope that one day she would forgive him fully and revert back to her normal self.

"If those girls don't hurry up and get out here, we're going to be late," Sokka complained, shaking Aang out of his reverie.

Aang looked up at him. He was clad in a pair of dark green pants with boots over them and a matching shirt buttoned up with gold fasteners. His boomerang was slung carelessly over his shoulder in the usual manner, just in case.

"Let them finish. It doesn't matter if we make it there on time or not," said Aang dully. "I don't care to go at all," he added under his breath.

Sokka shot him a funny look as if to say, "you will go even if I have to drag you all the way there and then tie you to a chair" but said nothing. Minutes passed in silence. Sokka continued to pace, gnashing his teeth together in an annoying fashion as his temper worsened at the girls' extensive preparations.

Finally, Sokka bellowed, "If you girls aren't out here in five seconds, we're leaving without you and giving your invitations to some other girls!"

Aang smiled weakly, thinking that wasn't such a bad idea – perhaps another girl would take his mind off Katara – when Sokka started his countdown.

"Five."

Aang could vaguely hear the girls talking from the bathroom.

"Four."

Aang wondered if the others would notice if he walked to the ball with them and then just turned around and walked home. Skipping the ball would certainly save him a lot of heartbreak and misery.

"Three."

Yes, that did seem like a good idea. He knew he wouldn't be able to watch Jet and Katara together – he had managed to avoid it up until now, but he feared he would be incapable of doing so at the ball.

"Two."

The sound of the girls scrambling down the hallway reached Aang's ears a moment before he heard Sokka say,

"One."

The door slid open at once and revealed Katara and Toph. Aang's jaw dropped.

Katara stood in the doorway, somewhat shyly, to Toph's right, an unsure smile playing on her lips. She wore a light gold kimono with large wine-red roses and dark green leaves printed on it. A fake rose matching those on the fabric was pinned to the left of her chest and dangling from her neck (and Aang's heart sank horribly when he recognized it) was the emerald shard necklace Jet gave to her. Her hair was sent in curls and pulled up on the right side in a decorative comb adorned with a rose on top of it to reveal her ear.

Aang stared hopelessly at her, dumbstruck by her stunning beauty, until Katara shifted her gaze onto him and said, somewhat annoyed, "Aang, you're staring."

Aang quickly pulled his eyes away from Katara and blushed.

"Sorry," he apologized, speaking fast. "I just couldn't help noticing how beau-nice you look tonight."

Nervously, Aang glanced over at Sokka to see his reaction, only to find that he was staring, mouth agape, at Toph. Eyebrows raised, Aang turned to look at Toph as well and received a major shock. Clothed in a pale pink kimono of a similar fashion to Katara's, most of Toph's shiny black hair was let down, cascading fluidly down her back. A small portion of hair had been wrapped around a headdress matching her kimono. Heart-shaped earrings hung from her ears and on her feet she wore thin ballet flats. The overall effect was that for once she actually looked… girly and very un-Toph-like. She was very pretty, undoubtedly the reason Sokka was gazing so avidly at her.

"Wow, Toph," Sokka whispered hoarsely. "You look amazing."

Toph blushed lightly before taking Sokka's hand in her own and saying, "Are we leaving yet? You were so eager to get going a moment ago; why are you suddenly so content with staying in one place?" She smirked as though she knew exactly the reason why. It was Sokka's turn to blush.

"C'mon, let's go." He dashed out in front of Toph and opened the door for her, helping her outside.

Grinning widely, Katara and Aang followed, making their way out into the warm late afternoon air and to their destination: the Meesangs' ball.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

Okay, I am soo sorry for Jet's OOCness. I do try to keep him in character, but he hasn't appeared in many episodes, nor has he been in any type of situation like this. Lately, I don't really care how much in character they are; I really want them to act how I want them to act. But I tried not to let that side take over and write this chapter!

I know this is a Kataang story! I just really got in the Jetara mood when writing this. And I really enjoyed the date. I almost wanted to make the story Jetara instead of Kataang… cowers as Kataang fans attack And about the kiss… well, I keep talking about how Jet and Katara's relationship has progressed, and unless something happens to prove that, it's all talk, isn't it…

One more note! If any of you caught the "ugly speckled mug" thing in my last chapter… that was totally an accident! My sister reads my chapters before I post them, and I put that in there to make her laugh. I meant to take it out before posting, but I forgot, and by the time I remembered I no longer had internet access for the rest of the week! I would change it but everyone's read it now, so I'll leave it in for laughs. I love the British…

Thanks to all my readers and reviewers!


	10. The Ball: The Dinner

All right, I've updated at last! I really don't have much to say other than I just lost interest with this story and that's why it took so long to write. But I've regained that interest for the time being and finished! There are two more chapters after this, but don't expect them to be out soon. I need to reread this story and go over all my notes so I don't leave any unintentional "loose ends", so to speak. How's everyone liking Season 3? It's good, no? All the action is this Friday with the two episode Day of Black Sun. One thing I'm mad about is that some of the things I planned out for this story a long time ago have happened on Avatar already! One of them I can't tell you (it'll happen in the next chapter) and it's slightly different, but still! It seems like I'm copying the show, but I really thought of this before it happened. Oh well. Enjoy chapter ten, everyone!

**Disclaimer:** Nope, still don't own Avatar. I think I'd screw it up anyway.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

Despite the fact that her surroundings were ardent and peaceful, with the enticing aroma of lotus drifting through the early evening air and the amiable chatter of her companions ringing in her ears, Katara found that her mind refused to be at ease and allow her to enjoy herself on the walk to the Meesang's mansion. It was wholly focused on one thing; or person, she should say.

Aang. Her pupil, best friend, and current object of her attention who was walking several steps in front of her, staring straight ahead. Katara's eyes couldn't help but linger on him as she looked him over. He looked so (dare she say it?) handsome.

He was clothed in loose beige pants with tall dark boots pulled up over the bottoms and a forest-green long-sleeved shirt patterned with thin trails of gold that reached down past the top of his pants. A black button-up vest with gold fasteners and a decorative collar was worn over the shirt. Katara failed to recall a time when he wore something other than his air monk outfit and she had to admit that the new clothes did wonders. They outlined his naturally slim figure and gave him an older and more serious appearance that was most unlike the playful child she had come to know. She had a strong feeling that this was exactly how Aang would be when he was older – except that he would be a lot taller. Maybe it was just the different clothes that gave him this older aura, or the fact that in the absence of his bright smile and facetious disposition, he looked a lot more somber. He seemed quite depressed, and the thought of him being down about anything saddened Katara greatly.

"And don't bother opening doors for me; I'm perfectly capable of doing it myself, and – ouch!" As she had been lecturing a rather dazed Sokka about what to do and what not to do during their "date", Toph had failed to notice the fairly large piece of cobblestone jutting out of the street and, as a result, had stubbed her toe. Sokka, who had been enraptured in her speech, came to just in time to catch her awkwardly as Katara, deep in thought and unaware of her surroundings, proceeded to walk directly into Sokka. Sokka lost his feeble grasp on Toph's arm and she fell to her knees on the hard road.

"It's these stupid shoes!" Toph raged, peeling one off with distaste and rubbing her sore toe angrily. "I can't sense any vibrations with these things on! It's almost as bad as walking on ice!"

Sokka glared accusingly at Katara as she was jolted out of her thoughts and brought back to reality. She blinked around dazedly while Sokka turned his attention to his date, trying to calm her and stop the stares they were gathering from the surrounding crowd.

Shaking her head, Katara said, "Oh, Toph, I'm so sor- " she stopped speaking abruptly upon hearing sudden footsteps behind her. She whirled around and found herself face to face with Jet.

"Uh… hi," stuttered Katara, pink in the cheeks and completely flustered as she looked him up and down.

"Hello Katara," Jet whispered softly, cupping her cheek with one hand and staring into her eyes. "Need I even say how stunning you look?"

Katara's blush deepened. "Y-you look nice too," she mumbled, averting her eyes and staring at the ground abashedly.

Smiling, Jet leaned forward and kissed her cheek. Feeling as if the sun had suddenly decided to pop up and warm the chilly night air, Katara furtively glanced around to her friends. Aang was looking away pointedly. Sokka and Toph had frozen mid-argument, one of Sokka's hands resting on Toph's shoulder as the latter clutched her irksome shoe, bare foot planted firmly on the ground and pointed towards the couple a few feet away. Slowly, a smirk crept up onto Toph's face.

"Jet and Katara, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" she recited in a singsong voice. Katara glared haughtily at her, cheeks ablaze, and opened her mouth to retort when Aang interjected.

"That's enough already, we get the point!" he growled irritably. "Let's just go in." He turned his back on them and stalked off without a backwards glance.

Toph replaced her shoe without talking and, a guilty look displayed across her physiognomy, she followed Aang down the street towards the illuminated hall.

Aang was already at the entrance, waiting for the remainder of the gang to show up so he could present their invitation to the bouncer. Upon receiving an accepting nod, the five of them moved into the hall and looked around in awe.

The building itself was circular in shape, topped of with a domed roof made of thick glass. Lit paper lanterns and streamers of ruby red, forest green, pastel pink, and rich gold hues were strung up from the ceiling. Dozens of these streamers hung from end to end from the ceiling. Long tables draped in elegant gold and emerald tablecloths sagged and groaned under the weight of the innumerable covered platters of food. Refined, melodic music drifted throughout the decorous hall, accompanied by the incessant babble of the snobbish rich folk crowding the vicinity. Sparkling white lights shimmered at every few feet of the room, dousing it in a flickering, ardent glow.

"There you are!"

Everybody turned to see a middle-aged woman clothed in an array of sublime robes and jewels sweeping gracefully across the room to them, a disapproving frown settled upon her pretty visage.

"Oh, uh, Mrs. Meesang," Jet said, somewhat sheepishly. When Mrs. Meesang continued to stare at him expectantly, he hastily continued. "Oh, right. Mrs. Meesang, this is Katara, Toph, Sokka, and Aang." He pointed them out as he said their names. "Guys, this is Mrs. Meesang, hostess of this ball and a personal friend." He winked at her.

Graciously, the gorgeous woman bowed. "I'm honored to meet you. However," she turned her sharp eyes back onto Jet, "don't think you'll get out of your duties that easily. You didn't forget, did you? Come with me." She grabbed hold of his arm and steered him away, then paused, and, turning back, said, "I apologize for being unable to introduce myself properly, but I am in a rather hurry, so please excuse me. If you four would take your seats, the dinner will begin shortly." And with that she and Jet disappeared into the crowd.

Sokka, who had instantly brightened at the mention of food, spoke first. "Let's go sit down then, shall we?" He was hardly able to keep the enthusiasm out of his voice as he practically sprinted to the banquet table.

Toph shook her head distastefully and followed him, complaining, "Sokka, did you only come here for the _food_?"

Aang and Katara remained behind, both silent. "Well, want to go join them?" Aang finally asked. He offered his arm. Katara looked at it strangely, eyebrows raised. "Since your escort is not present at the moment, I thought it'd be required that I take his place. Can't have a beautiful lady escort herself, can we?"

Katara blushed and wrapped her arm around his. "I suppose not," she laughed.

As they made their way to Sokka and Toph, Katara attempted to soothe her fluttering nerves. Her heart had been racing since she had taken Aang's arm, and she was consciously aware that the room had grown far too warm and stuffy for her liking, though nothing appeared to have changed since she arrived that would have affected the temperature. _I can't be feeling this way about Aang!_ Katara panicked, willing herself with all her might to stop thinking about him in _that_ way. _I can't, I like Jet and Aang's just my best friend, right?_ She noticed that the more times she said that to herself over the past few weeks, the less she believed it.

When they reached the table, Sokka and Toph immediately ceased arguing to gawk disbelievingly at them. Puzzled, Katara followed their gapes and saw that somehow her and Aang's arms had fallen down to their sides and their fingers had intertwined. Wide-eyed, Katara glanced up in time to see Jet shoot Aang a furious look from across the hall. Mortified, Katara nervously tugged at her hand, but Aang's grip was deathlike.

"Aang," Katara mumbled. "Can I have my hand back, please?"

Aang brought his eyes up to meet hers and she noticed with a pang the wistful longing they held within their stormy gray depths. _Maybe… maybe he really does like – or even _love_ – me. Maybe everything I suspected from the beginning is true – was it right in front of my face the whole time, and I was too blind to see it?_ But the second she thought this, the look was gone and Aang was extracting his hand from hers, saying,

"Sorry about that, I spaced out for a bit. Er, there're only two seats here, so I'll go over and sit with Sokka and Toph while you wait for Jet."

Katara seated herself and watched Aang sit across the table from her on Toph's right. Sokka, on Toph's left, stared at Aang suspiciously. Aang flashed a grin and turned his back to him, facing the head of the table. A lady he recognized to be Mrs. Meesang was talking with an eloquently dressed man while Jet stood behind them, looking bored. Eventually, the man nodded his head and muttered something in Jet's ear, who in turn nodded and made a beeline for Katara. As he took his seat beside her, Aang kept his eyes trained firmly on the man at the head of the table. The man helped Mrs. Meesang into a seat next to his, raised his wine glass, and tapped on it gently. All of the guests instantly fell silent and gave him their undivided attention.

"Welcome, and thank you all for attending our ball!" the venerable host, Mr. Meesang, announced in a booming voice, gesturing to his wife as he spoke. "We both hope that you will all enjoy yourselves to the fullest tonight, but before we begin the banquet, I have a few things I would like to say to you all…."  
Aang's interest declined rapidly and he tuned the man out, staring around gloomily at his surroundings instead. His roaming eyes came to rest on Katara and Jet. The latter was whispering something in the Waterbender's ear. Katara blushed and giggled softly, appearing to think for a moment before nodding her head enthusiastically in agreement. Aang swallowed painfully, tearing his gaze away from this miserable sight.

"…And so, without farther ado, let the dinner commence!" Mr. Meesang clapped his hands jovially and waiters appeared instantly, carrying over platters of steaming food.

Sokka's mouth watered and his eyes almost popped out of his head as innumerable plates of assorted meats seemed to appear in front of him out of nowhere.

"Now I know without a doubt in my mind that this ball was worth coming to!" he exclaimed gleefully, snatching up a drumstick and ravishing it like someone dying of hunger.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

An hour later, still seated at the table, Aang was finding his jealousy to be increasingly difficult to suppress. Watching Jet and Katara talk and flirt mere feet away from him proved only to make him grouchy and irritated; his lips had sported an aggravated scowl for so long now he wouldn't have been surprised if they refused to resume their usual shape again.

"Hey Toph, open your mouth," Sokka commanded, picking up a mysterious piece of food with his chopsticks and shoving it at her face.

"Why?" she demanded suspiciously.

"I can't tell you that, it's a surprise!" Sokka chided her, holding back laughter. With her shoes on and her vision impaired, Sokka knew she wouldn't be able to identify the food and refuse to eat it.

Toph thought about it for a minute. "Fine." She opened her mouth and waited. Grinning broadly with his success, Sokka leaned forward, and, a split second before the food entered her mouth, Toph jerked away, causing Sokka to lose his balance and fall headfirst to the ground, his legs and lower body still on the bench.

"Toph!" Sokka growled angrily as Toph roared with laughter. "Why'd you do that?"

Holding her sides from laughing so hard and trying to compose herself enough to speak properly, Toph replied snidely, "Oh, don't think you're so innocent, Mr. I'm-going-to-feed-Toph-gross-food-because-she-can't-see-it-and-it-will-be-funny because, contrary to what you thought, I knew perfectly well what you were trying to feed me. You didn't honestly believe I'd keep those horrible shoes on for _that_ long, did you?" Toph snorted loudly before saying, "Ah, you crack me up, Sokka!"

Sokka scowled and pushed himself up off the floor and back into his seat, rubbing his injured cheek as he did so. "That hurt, you know."

Toph stuck out her lower lip in a mock pout and said, "Lighten up, Sokka. Sheesh, can't anyone take a joke anymore?"  
Sokka smiled reluctantly. "Yeah, I suppose you're right, but next tine the joke will be on you! I'll get you back, don't you worry!" he promised.

Pretending to yawn, Toph swatted her hand at him as though he were some pesky fly that had been bothering her for a while. "Whatever you say, Sokka, whatever you say."

Fuming, Sokka yelled, "And what do you mean by tha– hey Aang where are you going?"

"Out," Aang responded shortly, not bothering to turn back as he spoke. He continued on his way through the back door leading to the garden and didn't stop until he had reached a stream surrounded by trees and isolated from the people at the ball, the cheery chatter, and the flirting couples. It was just him, all alone and surrounded by nature, silent except for the hushed murmurs of the wind and the occasional hooting of an owl.

Aang took a deep, calming breath and exhaled slowly, closing his eyes. The ball was not even halfway done, and yet he felt as though he'd been there longer than he was frozen in the iceberg. He had been yearning to leave before he'd even arrived; it seemed like this party would never end. The room was suffocating him – across the table, Jet and Katara were talking and flirting and doing other couple-like things and right beside him Sokka and Toph were basically doing the same stuff in their own weird way. The claustrophobia and feeling of being trapped by everything he wanted to escape had escalated to a point where he couldn't stand it anymore and desperately needed fresh air and solitude.

The only thing that cheered him slightly (aside from the fact that there were several vegetarian dishes for him to choose from at dinner) was how Katara had continually looked his way with an unreadable expression. He also couldn't help noticing that at times her smile for Jet looked more like a grimace and her laugh sounded a bit forced. These tiny observations ignited a spark of hope in the Avatar's heart, and as miniscule as that spark may have been, he still retained the smallest hope that Katara wasn't as crazy over Jet as he thought she was and that maybe, just maybe, she felt a little something for him, Aang – something a bit more than friendship, something more along the lines of what he felt for her – love.

"Hey Aang, there you are!"

Aang snapped his eyes open and looked up to see Sokka hurrying over to him, relief of his face.

"Why'd you run off like that?" asked Sokka concernedly.

Aang shrugged nonchalantly. "I wanted some fresh air," he supplied dully.

Sokka looked disbelieving. "Ah, I see," he said, knowing there was more to it than that. "Are you sure nothing's wrong?"

"Wrong? Why would anything be wrong?"

Scratching the back of his head, Sokka replied, "Well, you've just been acting a bit… strange tonight. Actually, I guess not just tonight, you've been like this for a while now, but… I was just wondering if something was bothering you. No offense, but you're acting a bit… jealous."

Aang's heart rate sped up. "What? Who's jealous? What's there to be jealous about?"

"Well, you don't have a date, for one, and Katara and Toph and I all came with someone…"

"So? I told you guys I didn't care about that."

"…And you seem to be paying a lot of attention to my sister and Jet… _especially_ to my sister…"

"What?" Aang's mouth had gone dry. Did he know?

"And if I didn't know better, I'd say you… had a crush on her," Sokka finished, looking up with slightly apologetic eyes.

Aang was speechless. He had no clue what to say or do to get himself out of this situation.

"What would you say if I did like you sister?" Aang asked him cautiously, deciding there was no other way around this.

Sokka was silent for a moment. "I'd say… go for it. Get her."

Aang stared in disbelief at him, stunned and speechless. "W-what?" he spluttered, eyes wide.

"Tell her how you feel. Be honest with her. Do it before it's too late and you've missed your chance."

"And you don't mind? You're okay with it?" Aang demanded, still finding it hard to believe that Sokka, the overprotective brother, would tell him to go after his sister.

Sokka smiled knowingly. "I trust you. I know you won't do anything to hurt her. You're my friend, Aang, and I want what's best for you, and for my sister as well. But I've got my eye on you," he added, winking.

Aang rolled his eyes. "I knew that side would come out sooner or later," he muttered. "But… thanks, Sokka. I think I will try. I mean, after all this, it'd be stupid to just give up, right?"

"Now that's more like the Aang I know," Sokka laughed. "C'mon Aang, let's go inside. The dancing is about to begin."

He threw his arm around Aang's shoulder in a brotherly fashion and the two returned to the festivities, where joyous couples were soon to be seen in each other's arms on the dance floor, twirling around and smiling adoringly, wrapped up in their own little world in which only they can exist.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

Thank you all, my devoted fans who have returned after I neglected you!! Thanks for reading!!


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